Four essays survey two port cities in parallel – Valletta, Malta and Accra, Ghana. Their research examines the impact and economic pressures of colonial trade on the architectural evolution of the cities’ port areas, the Grand Harbour and Jamestown-Osu, with an aim to re-imagine the future of their built heritage.

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 its parallel observation, Valletta Accra questioned how heritage might develop in line with authentic permeations of identity and urban ambition, positioning contrast as a methodology for revelation.