Deconstructing Ghana’s slums: Dystopia, Distressed Urbanism and Lessons from Asia 1 Lloyd G. A. Amoah, Ph.D. Strategy3 and Ashesi University Key words: Urbanization, Slums, Dystopia, Development, Upgrade, Ghana Abstract The failed but ongoing attempt by the Government of Ghana to relocate residents of Sodom and Gomorrah, a festering slum in Accra, etched indelibly on the national consciousness the too often ignored urban nightmare that the emergence and proliferation of slums present to Ghana’ s cityscape. Sodom and Gomorrah has come to symbolize worryingly the emergence of an urbanization crisis across Ghana that so long ignored has now morphed into a major public policy challenge. In my paper I would make the case that Ghana’ s slums represent in brick and mortar the dystopia that Ghana’ s urban evolution in particular has become and the caricaturing of the whole development enterprise of the Ghanaian state in general. Drawing on lessons from some countries in Asia the paper will present possible solutions for upgrading slums and tie this in with the development value of such an undertaking. 1 This work was presented(7 th October, 2009) at the National Housing Conference held in Accra, Ghana on the 7-8 of October, 2009 and published(pp.26-33) as part of the Proceedings of the Conference by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR) and the Building and Road Research Institute(BRRI) in 2009.