Drawing on community empowerment literature, this chapter charts how slum dwellers in the Old Fadama informal settlement in central Accra, Ghana, sought ways to empower themselves and resist forced evictions. Whilst the theory of community empowerment is powerful, the chapter demonstrates the difficulties in putting it into practice. In Old Fadama’s case, the state had no intention of legally recognizing its status or providing public assurances that slum dwellers’ properties would not be demolished. The deadlock between the state and the slum community was finally broken when the state undertook large-scale slum clearance with no consultation or strategic planning where those displaced would be resettled. When those with power are unwilling to admit citizens into their final decision-making, community empowerment efforts to assert slum dweller’s rights to stay are effectively thwarted. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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