Makola Market
The belly of Accra: fabric, smoked fish, hardware, spread over streets with no map.
Duration
1 hr – 2 hrs
Best time
In the morning
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
Makola is not a hall but a whole trading district, spilling across several streets with no plan and no clear edge. It is run almost entirely by women — the market queens organise the wholesale trade by commodity, and their economic power is real.
You find everything: wax print cloth, smoked fish, utensils, medicines, spare parts. It was bulldozed by the military regime in 1979, precisely because of that power, and reassembled itself within a few years.
Getting there
In central Accra, around Kojo Thompson Road and Kimberly Avenue. Taxi or tro-tro to Rawlings Park.
Rules on site
The lanes are dense and unmapped, and it is easy to lose your bearings: pick an exit street before you go in. Photographing the traders must be asked for, and is often refused.