At about 7:20 in the evening on 22 June 1939, Accra shook hard enough to bring down around 1,500 buildings.
The earthquake, estimated at magnitude 6.3 to 6.5, killed between 17 and 22 people and injured 133. It is still the most destructive earthquake in Ghana’s recorded history, and the damage was worst along the coast, between Christiansborg, Kwasiman, Weija and Fete.
What happened that night
The Gold Coast was a British colony in 1939, and Accra was a much smaller city than today. Many buildings were made of swish, the local mud construction, or of poorly bonded brick and stone. When the shaking started, walls cracked and collapsed. Colonial reports recorded damage to government buildings, churches and homes, and fissures opened in the ground in some places.
Aftershocks continued for days. Many residents slept outside, afraid to return to damaged houses.
Why Accra shakes
Accra sits near the junction of two fault systems: the Akwapim fault zone, which runs along the Akwapim ridge, and the Coastal Boundary Fault offshore. The region has recorded earthquakes and tremors for more than two centuries, including damaging events in 1862 and 1906 as well as 1939. Smaller tremors have been felt in Accra and around Weija many times since, including a series in 2018 and 2019 that sent residents running out of buildings.
A city not built for it
Accra today is home to millions of people, with far more concrete buildings, many of them multi-storey, than in 1939. Engineers and researchers have repeatedly warned that a large share of these structures were built without proper attention to seismic codes. Construction without permits, weak concrete and buildings on unsuitable land are common concerns.
Ghana does have a building code with earthquake provisions, and the Ghana Geological Survey Authority monitors seismic activity. The problem is enforcement. A tremor on the scale of 1939 in today’s city would hit a far larger population, in far taller buildings.
What residents can do
Emergency agencies advise the same basic steps worldwide: drop, cover and hold on during shaking; stay away from windows and heavy objects; know the safe exits from your home and workplace; and, for anyone building, use a qualified engineer and follow the permit process.
How it was recorded
The 1939 earthquake was studied by colonial geologists, and a report on it appeared in the scientific journal Nature. Their work mapped where buildings failed and where the ground cracked, and it is still used by seismologists studying the region today. Modern estimates place the epicentre west of Accra, towards the Central Region, with the shaking strongest along the coast and the Weija area. The same records show that the areas built on loose, waterlogged ground suffered more than those on rock, a lesson that applies directly to the lagoon edges and low-lying districts where Accra has since spread.
Weija, one of the places hit hardest in 1939, now has housing estates built on the hills around it. The fault beneath it has not moved on the same scale since.
