Featured Building: GAEC Residence, 1960s

Accra Archive Fellows Alice Johnson and Divine Fiave profile a piece of Accra’s architectural history located about 6 km off the Legon-Madina road. This old building in Accra was one of the first residences commissioned during the establishment of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC). According to current residents, it was first owned/used by the British management in the 1960s and has housed 6 families since it was built. It is now home to the Human Resource Manager of GAEC.

GAEC was established by an Act of Parliament(Act 204) in 1963 towards “peaceful uses of atomic energy” in the country. The decision to get into nuclear energy came earlier in 1961 when the Government of Ghana instituted Ghana Nuclear Reactor Project “to introduce nuclear science and technology… and to exploit the peaceful applications of nuclear energy to foster national development”. (GAEC, 2019)

For more on the history of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, see “Atomic Junction: Nuclear Power in Africa After Independence” by Abena Dove Osseo-Asare - one of the most prominent scholars of Nuclear Power in Ghana.

In this video, Divine Fiave takes us on a tour of this residential building.

Music: Sunshine Day and Woyaya by Osibisa

Production and Direction: Alice Johnson and Divine Fiave