Introduction

Filled with detailed descriptions of Ghana’s busy capital and its diverse residents, Quartey’s gripping narrative vividly dramatises the material and imaginative challenges produced by contemporary urbanisation. While Obi’s psychopathy is a deliberately heightened example, his violent disposal of his victims is tragically indicative of the widespread social disregard for many of Accra’s most vulnerable residents. Attracted to the city by the promise of economic opportunity, this supply of largely unskilled workers outstrips the demand for WKHLUODERXU$VWKH\DFFXPXODWHDWWKHOLWHUDODQG¿JXUDWLYHXUEDQPDUJLQVWKH\ are exposed to the poverty, pollution, overcrowding and crime that accompany

intense urban growth. As Obi tells an indignant Inspector Dawson, ‘Street people are sleeping everywhere. Who knows they are there, and who cares about them? Who will report anything?’ (Quartey 2011, p. 322). Physically ubiquitous, yet socially ignored, these disempowered urban residents are literally reduced to the status of the detritus in which they frequently live and work.