



Valletta – Accra
A Dialogue Between Mercantile Cities
David Kojo Derban, Ann Dingli, Guillaume Dreyfuss, Erica Giusta
Valletta Accra was launched in November 2023 as a travelling research project initiated by architecture firm AP Valletta with David Kojo Derban and Ann Dingli, as part of the Arts Council Malta’s International Cultural Exchange programme. The aim was to study two capitals across two continents, each holding memory of colonial presence and its wielding of mercantile potential. The team of researchers approached heritage fabric as a transcript of the evolving urban, social, and economic life of two harbour cities – Accra, the capital of Ghana on the West Africa, and Valletta, the capital of Malta, an island in the Mediterranean - both carrying the imprint of their role as adopted trading strongholds. The comparison of the two cities was positioned as a departure point for a deeper reading of both the colonial and post- colonial experience. In
