“We are creators and imitators,
We dissemble and reassemble”
That’s how one of the elders of the Ghana National Association of Garages (GNAG) at the Suame magazine describes the industrial area in Kumasi, Ghana.
I, particularly, had a hard time describing what Suame magazine was while walking through the area. I was increasingly amazed walking through the area and seeing people at work – Things were moving. There was some integrity in the activities being done.
So what was being done? You may ask.
The first set of people we stopped to talk to were building transformers. We stopped to chat with them about where they learned how to make these transformers.
The owner of the shop responded “ My master was the one that thought me” He passed on his knowledge.
Standing next to him are his apparentices. They are learning the craft or trade of making transformers.
This is a theme at the Suame Magazine, most of the people working here learned through informal education. They learned from their masters – through observation and doing. This knowledge has been passed down through the years in Suame Magazine.
Suame magazine as it is today has been around since the 1920s when blacksmiths started to shift their attention from carriage to cars. They clustered themselves around the arms depot of the British colonial army which is where the name Magazine comes from. The population of the area increased rapidly in the 1970s when auto-mobility spread around African countries in its first decade after independence from colonialism [1].
Suame magazine is located in the capital of the Ashanti Region – Kumasi. In Kumasi, you get a sense that the people in the Region are very proud of where they are from. The sense of pride is reflective of the pride of the Ashanti people.
My tour guide told me told me stories of Yaa Asantewaa and how she led the rebellion against British Colonialism in what is known as the War of the Golden Stool. A statue of her is memorialized at a roundabout in town.
You still see that pride in the Suame magazine. People being productive. Working hard. Being innovative.
This innovator pictured below makes different machines from pure-water bagging machines to debeaking machines. He was featured in a BBC magazine some years ago. He was very proud showing us his feature in that magazine and talking about all the machines that he had built.
What about the men building these mills used to to separate gold, which the Ashanti region is very rich of.
People are putting together vehicles
Smelting iron
Making cooking equipment
Basic tools
Smashing waste
If there is one thing that the know in Swame magazine – that thing is metal. These guys can make anything out of metal.
Suame magazine has the reputation of a place where stolen vehicles go. You hear “if you car enters the Suame magazine, it’s gone, they will change the car, you wouldn’t recognize it anymore”. I found that amusing. But it seems like the only reputation that Suame magazine has. While in fact, it’s also a place where a lot of innovation is taking place. A lot of smart people reside in this location. Suame Magazine is one of the few places in Ghana that offers training and jobs to young people who otherwise have few opportunities to build their career.
We should be talking about how we should support this type of innovation. What can be done to improve the magazine – better roads, better infrastructure, electricity. The main issue that one of the leaders at magazine said was a lack of business training for these artisans. If artisans can manage their business and their craft properly. The entire area will benefit.
So if you are in the area, swing by Suame Magazine and be amazed by the ingenuity and innovation going on in one of Africa’s biggest informal industrial zone.
African innovation is different.
