From Forts to Fishing Nets

A Coastline Built on Trade and the Sea

Jamestown lies within Ga Mashie – Old Accra, historically recognized as the first settlement of the indigenous Ga people and one of Ghana’s earliest urban coastal communities (Grant & Yankson, 2003). Once known as Soko, the town acquired a new identity with the arrival of European trading forts on the Ga coast:

- Ussher Fort (Dutch, 1605) on the former town of Aprang

- James Fort (British, 1673) on the former town of Soko

The presence of these forts resulted in the renaming of Soko and Aprang to Jamestown and Ussher Town respectively (Nunoo-Amarteifio, 2015). Jamestown, also called Ngleshie (English Town), owes its very name to James Fort and the long history of Atlantic trade that reshaped this shoreline.