The urban majority in Africa do a great deal of walking, yet we do not fully understand the lived realities of the so-called captive walkers, who have no option but to walk. This study explores the everyday lived accounts of urban residents as they navigate the walking environment in two low-income neighbourhoods in Accra, Ghana’s capital. The study adopted a qualitative approach drawing on 2 focus group discussions, 60 interviews with residents in the Dome and Accra Newtown neighbourhoods in Accra, and 10 institutional interviews. The findings show that residents viewed walking as a means of enhancing social relations, health, and spatial awareness. Lived accounts show that walking is stressful and dangerous because of the design and behavioral barriers in the walking environment. While highlighting the value of community-level responses to walking barriers, this paper calls for a more nuanced understanding of the everyday lived experiences of walking, reconsidering walkability challenges as intricately linked to, not separate from, urban development challenges and engaging captive walker perspectives as the basis for driving equitable and inclusive principles in the agenda for sustainable urban mobilities in Africa and Global South generally.

非洲城市大多数人经常步行，但我们并不完全了解所谓的“圈养步行者”的生活现实，他们别无选择，只能步行。这项研究探讨了城市居民在加纳首都阿克拉的两个低收入社区的步行环境中的日常生活记录。该研究采用定性方法，借鉴了 2 次焦点小组讨论、对阿克拉 Dome 和阿克拉新城社区居民的 60 次访谈以及 10 次机构访谈。研究结果表明，居民将步行视为增强社会关系、健康和空间意识的一种手段。真实的记录表明，由于步行环境的设计和行为障碍，步行是有压力和危险的。在强调社区层面应对步行障碍的价值的同时，本文呼吁对日常生活的步行体验有更细致的理解，重新考虑步行性挑战，将其与城市发展挑战错综复杂地联系在一起，而不是分开，并将圈养步行者的观点纳入城市发展挑战中。非洲和全球南方可持续城市交通议程中推动公平和包容性原则的基础。