Paper short abstract:

The paper contributes to the discourse on urban commoning, resistance, survival and the right to the city while discussing traders' collective action, imaginative construction, and creative initiatives to repossess a market destroyed by fire despite eviction threats from traditional authorities.

Paper long abstract:

Kantamanto Market – one of Ghana’s largest used clothing markets, located next to the Central Railway station in the central business district of Accra, was engulfed in a huge fire on 2 January 2025. According to media reports, more than 30,000 traders were affected. There were attempts from some traditional authorities to reclaim the space to construct a shopping mall. The traders quickly employed different strategies to mobilise themselves to rebuild burnt stalls through cash and material donations and individual contributions. They also used media channels to speak against eviction attempts. The neoliberal capitalist planning agenda portraying African cities as the new frontier for development has deepened inequalities and marginalised some persons in these urban spaces. Such a development agenda underpinned the eviction threat the traders received from the traditional authorities. However, several authors have criticised these urban planning ideals claiming that it has resulted in conflicting rationalities where the poor are pushed out of certain urban spaces. The high cost of renting out the privately developed shopping mall would have displaced most petty traders operating in that space. Using the concept of urban commoning, the paper analyses traders' collective action, imaginative construction, and creative initiatives in reconstructing their market despite eviction threats from traditional authorities as a form of resistance. This paper contributes to the discourse on urban commoning, resistance, survival strategies and the right to the city.