Tamale, one of West Africa’s fastest-growing cities, is shaped by rapid urban expansion, horizontal sprawl, and the interweaving of tree savanna and agricultural landscapes into its urban fabric. This growth presents environmental and infrastructural challenges but also reveals opportunities for reimagining urban ecologies. The city’s inner-urban peripheral and open spaces hold potential for alternative urban futures that respond to Tamale’s distinct environmental and cultural context.
Tamale’s Inner-Urban Ecologies (TIUE) is a collaborative research initiative exploring the intersections of climate change, urbanization, and multi-species cohabitation in Tamale. The project focuses on three distinct urban open spaces, each defined by its unique spatial, environmental, and socio-cultural characteristics: Dakpema Island, Tamale Old Airfield, and Tamale Waterworks with its adjacent forest. These sites serve as case studies to explore how urban ecologies evolve and interact within the city’s inner-urban fabric.
Through spatial, artistic, and scientific approaches, eight (student) researchers investigate the dynamics of these spaces, developing individual “lenses” that integrate field research, artistic interventions, and interdisciplinary analysis. Their investigations contribute to a growing body of knowledge on urban ecologies and offer insights into the coexistence of human and non-human life in Tamale’s evolving landscape.
PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS
University of Applied Arts, Vienna
University for Development Studies (UDS), Tamale
Nuku Centre for Photographic Research and Practice, Tamale
PARTICIPANTS
Alice Bazzichelli, Amelie Koerbs, Apoorva Thapa, Fibi Afloe, Ihsan Chimsi Abubakari, Malea Noll, Sadia Halima Musah, Yunxi Wu
FACILITATIORS
Baerbel Mueller, Daniil Zhiltsov, Kush Badhwar, Elizabeth Apuseyine, Nii Obodai
TIUE is co-funded by the Austrian-African Research Network AfricaUniNet for 2023-2025
