Negotiating Mental Health and Colonial Power: Land, Resistance, and Infrastructure in Gold Coast, 1919–1957

Abstract

Aside from financial constraints, land acquisition was one of the main issues confronting the colonial government in building a second mental health facility in the Gold Coast, (now present-day Ghana). This work argues that between 1919 and 1957, the inability to institute a second mental hospital was highly influenced by land ownership dynamics and resultant resistance. Although colonial officials recognized that an additional facility was needed to alleviate the dire overcrowding conditions at the Accra Mental Hospital, their actions were hampered by financial constraints and, more importantly, by concerns regarding the availability of appropriate land. This demonstrates how the local chiefs and communities, particularly in places like Dabaa near Kumase, resisted the issuance of their land, which was regarded not only as a means of subsistence but also as a source of political and cultural power. The colonial administration did not adopt large-scale land expropriation for fear of antagonizing local rulers whose cooperation under the indirect rule arrangement was deemed indispensable; instead, prolonged negotiations were preferred without achieving a desirable result. This paper develops the fineness of how colonial power relations, local resistances, and cultural conceptions of land cut through one another to impede infrastructural developments in mental health care and the more significant struggles between colonial ambitions versus localized realities.