The Popular Niche Economy of a Ghanaian Bus Station: Departure from Informality

Abstract

This article combines the concept of a “popular economy” with that of a “niche economy” to analyse the workings of a central bus station in Accra, Ghana, and, by extension, of Ghana's public transport sector at large. In doing so it departs from generic models of the “informal sector” commonly used for describing road and roadside entrepreneurship in African contexts. At the same time, it challenges prevalent views of popular economies bent on emphasising mechanisms of reciprocity and solidarity over opportunity and profiteering. The focus on the station, it suggests, provides for a detailed reflection on the dialectics of collaboration and competition characteristic of Ghana's local transport economics, and it offers significant continuities with practices, places, and politics of economic “informality” in Africa.

In the Shadow of the State

“…Similarly, if at first glance, dues collected from the drivers might be seen as forms of illegal extorsion or racketeering, they bring some form of protection against police rackets. Secondly, paying commissions to transport associations is common in many Africa's cities, and often seen as an exchange of services (Cissokho 2016;Stasik 2018). Thirdly, when drivers, passengers, journalists, and political parties contest garage laws, critiques tend to over-concentrate on agberos, who are stereotypically represented as archetypical outlaw figures.…”

“…I do not use the expressions "informal" or "paratransit" transports, but rather "popular" transport as the drivers and passengers using these in Lagos belong to popular classes and participate in a popular economy (on this point, seeStasik 2018).…”