Little Accra (University Heights, Bronx)

University Heights in the Bronx has so many residents from Ghana (in east Africa) that it has been nicknamed “Little Accra” after Accra, the capital and largest city of Ghana. “Little Accra” has been cited in print since 2003 and 2005.
 
Mount Hope in the Bronx has been called “Little Ghana.”
   
 
Wikipedia: University Heights, Bronx
University Heights is a low-income neighborhood of the West Bronx in New York City. The neighborhood is part of Bronx Community Board 5 and Bronx Community Board 7. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are: West 190th Street to the north, Jerome Avenue to the east, West Burnside Avenue to the south, and the Harlem River to the west. University Avenue is the primary thoroughfare in University Heights. The local subway is the IRT Jerome Avenue Line, operating along the Jerome Avenue. ZIP codes include 10453 and 10468.
 
Google Books
Nosh New York:
The Food Lover’s Guide to New York City’s Most Delicious Neighborhoods
By Myra Alperson
New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin
2003
Pg. 296:
Afro-Caribbean Bronx
I’m not sure if anyone has dubbed the area of the Bronx north of Yankee Stadium “Little Accra” as yet. I’ve read many articles about Ghanaians in the Bronx, and every time I find an African market in Manhattan or Brooklyn I look for copies of the newspaper African Abroad, which often carries advertisements from African markets and restaurants, a good deal of which seems to be in this neighborhood.
     
LTHForum.com
GAF
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 10:05 pm
Post subject: Africa Kine - Senegalese Food in New York
Dakar Nights New York City Entry #27
Hanging with an Africanist of my acquaintance, a woman who has spent much quality time in Accra, where she consults with museums and historical sites, we decided to dine under a full West African moon. Anglophone Africa is located in University Heights in the Bronx (Little Accra) and Fort Greene in Brooklyn
   
Daily News (New York, NY)
From the Bronx, birthplace of hip-hop music, comes Ghana’s ‘hiplife’
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN
TUESDAY, JUNE 29, 2010, 8:00 AM
(...)
Since 2003, he has persuaded a small army of young men from a heavily Ghanaian area of the Bronx, nicknamed Little Accra, to trade the dangerous street life for hiplife.
 
NYC-ARTS
Hip Hop Generation Next: Block Party
Sat, Aug 06, 2011, 2:00 pm - 8:00 pm
(...)
Bronx legends and tomorrow’s stars are joined by artists from Korea and Japan in this celebration of the cultural legacy of the South Bronx.
 
Performers include the multi-generational salsa and hip hop Abrazos Orchestra led by Aníbal “Andy Conga” Collazo Jr. and Angel R. Rodriguez; Emilio ”Buddha Stretch” Austin Jr. and the Hip Hop/Kung Fu ensemble; an XXL Freshman—the up-and-coming Bronx native Fred the Godson; the legendary pioneer DJ and inventor of scratching and the needle drop, GrandWizzard Theodore; Full Circle, the internationally acclaimed Bronx-based company led by Gabriel “Kwikstep” Dionisio and Ana “Rokafella” Garcia; the dancers of Illstyle & Peace Productions; the Ladies of MAWU, the all-women urban dance collective; freestyle hip-hop party dancing pioneers SnapShot & WandeePop; and Ghanaian musicians from the Bronx’s “Little Accra” neighborhood performing “hiplife,” a fusion of hip-hop and West African music.
 
Pubic Radio Exchange (PRX)
SOTRU - The Bronx: Still Rising from the Ashes
From: Al Letson
Series: State of the Re:Union Fall 2011 Season
Length: 53:37
(...)
SEGMENT C: (18:59)
Incue: I’m Al Letson and
Outcue: This is N-P-R
A. African Hip-Hop, Homegrown in the Bronx
Phil Black is one of those hardworking New Yorkers with a double life:  Bronx public school teacher by day and music producer by night. Phil immigrated to the Bronx from Ghana with his family as a kid, just when hip-hop was exploding across the Bronx.  He remembers some of the earliest hip-hop jams, with star-studded line-ups, right on his own block at 184th and Creston Avenue.  When Phil grew up and first heard the Ghanaian music called “hip-life”, a hybrid of American hip-hop and Ghanaian high-life, he was skeptical at best.  But once he traveled back to Ghana and saw how huge the scene was for young people there, he was sold.  Meanwhile, the Ghanaian population in the Bronx had exploded.  And Ghanaian teenagers were starting to get mixed up in the street life, gangs and crime.  Phil was not a music producer back then, but he was determined to help his community.  He started bringing young hip-life hopefuls into the studio, helping them make songs and sell their mix-tapes on the street.  Today, Phil Black is at the forefront of the “hip-life” Bronx music scene. Over the years he has persuaded dozens of young men from the Bronx’s Little Accra to trade street life for hip-life.