In 2017, shortly after taking office, President Nana Akufo-Addo announced that Ghana would build a National Cathedral in Accra, describing the project publicly as the fulfilment of a personal vow he had made before his election. The site chosen sat near the seat of government, land previously occupied by judges' official residences that were cleared to make way for the complex, and the commission went to David Adjaye, a Ghanaian British architect known internationally for the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.
The design called for far more than a single sanctuary. Plans described a cathedral hall seating several thousand, alongside a Bible museum, a chapel, a choir school and a banqueting hall, conceived as a national religious and civic complex rather than a parish church for one congregation. Its interdenominational character was deliberate, intended to represent Ghanaian Christianity broadly rather than any single church body.
That scale is also what made the project politically contentious almost from the start. Ghana's constitution commits the state to no religion, and funding a national cathedral partly from public money drew sustained criticism from secularists, from Ghana's Muslim and traditionalist minorities, and from citizens who argued public funds were better spent elsewhere. Cost estimates rose repeatedly past their original figures, and construction slowed well behind schedule amid audits and public argument over how much had been spent.
Whatever its eventual completion date, the National Cathedral has already become a live test of what a religiously plural, constitutionally secular state is reasonably asked to build in its own name, argued out in public rather than settled quietly.