PhD Defence Joseph Fosu-Ankrah: 'Common Grounds: Urban Spaces, Everyday Religious Encounters, and the Dynamics and Techniques of Coexistence in Madina-Accra (1959-Present)'

On Friday 24 October 2025 at 13:00 CEST, Joseph Fosu-Ankrah will defend his dissertation  Common Grounds: Urban Spaces, Everyday Religious Encounters, and the Dynamics and Techniques of Coexistence in Madina-Accra (1959-Present).

This dissertation examines the historical and contemporary dynamics of coexistence in Madina, one of Ghana’s most religiously and ethnically diverse urban neighbourhoods, located in Accra. Madina also possesses a distinctly transnational character, shaped by the presence of migrant communities originating from the Sahelian region, as well as from countries such as Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Libya, and Egypt. Emerging from the broader Madina Project, the study investigates how people of different faiths and social backgrounds inhabit, share, endeavour to avoid violent conflict, and negotiate shared urban space in their everyday lives. It examines how coexistence is sustained in a city that is characterised by both collaboration and tension. The study argues that the art of living together is constantly shaped by the economic, social, and moral realities of urban life.

Anchored in the interdisciplinary intersections of African History, Urban Anthropology, Religious Studies, and Sociology, the research situates Madina as a microcosm of postcolonial African urbanism: a space where plurality is lived, contested, and continually redefined. Madina’s story mirrors the larger narrative of Ghana’s urban transformation, migration, and religious diversification since independence, thus reflecting how urban spaces become sites of negotiation between difference and shared belonging.

More information about the research here.

For attending online, find the link here.