How Africa is trying to reclaim its history

New migrants will travel in the opposite direction.

Like their predecessors, they will not require visas or travel documents.

Their relocation is not physical but cultural and spiritual. It is their history (their philosophy, their beliefs) that is about to find a new home.

Their new residence is located in Pomadze Hills, Winneba. This 10-acre site, located in the central region of Ghana, is about 60 km west of the capital Accra.

It is a site to contemplate, with a hilly ground, covered with greenery.

If all goes according to plan, by August next year, this site will host an impressive six-storey structure: the Pan African Heritage Museum.

The Winneba site, through which the ‘migrants’ will enter their new home in Ghana, is just over an hour’s drive from Cape Coast Castle’s Gate of No Return. From this place, millions of Africans were forced to leave the continent and become slaves.

The museum, which is under construction, has one key objective: to preserve and tell the story of Africa using African voices, tools and culture.

The great minds behind the project say this is necessary because for a long time Africa’s story was told by others.

They claim that when someone else tells your story, they tell it from their perspective in order to be seen.

The museum therefore seeks to appropriate the African narrative by bridging what, according to the founders, is a gap that has existed between people of African descent for more than 400 years.

It is a museum that seeks to teach, heal and inspire.

According to Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, the museum “will provide a natural residence and resting place for all looted cultural objects from our continent, which are kept in foreign museums and will be returned to us.”

It is the latest museum to be built on the continent, after those in Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, and it comes at a time when Europe is increasingly accepting that objects seized in Africa during the colonial era are returned.

Judging by the digital version that was recently launched, the museum will be an amazing structure that will stand tall and be visible from afar – a monument to Pan-Africanism.

As a passionate Pan-Africanist, I visited the virtual museum.

As soon as you enter, your eyes discover magnificent contemporary works of art by great artists of African origin.

Soothing saxophone sounds, accompanied by soft piano notes, put you at ease.

As if by magic, I was immediately caught up in this magnificent painting by Nigerian artist Doba Afolabi.

The work, titled Nite Voltron, depicts a passionate musician happily emptying the contents of his lungs into his saxophone.

A few virtual steps further, I come face to face with Tangled Trickster, an intriguing work by American visual artist Aisha Tandiwe Bell, famous for her use of mixed media to create myths and rituals.

According to her, the woman depicted as a trickster “encapsulates our fragmented, hyphenated, modern identities and our multiple consciousnesses”.

The idea of ​​targeting our collective African identity and history by harnessing, celebrating and conserving African culture in a unique Pan-African museum was born in 1994.

The man behind the idea is Kojo Acquah Yankah, former editor of Ghana’s Daily Graphic newspaper, who served as an MP and minister in the government of the late President Jerry Rawlings.

He tells me that the inspiration came to him while attending the commemoration of the 375th anniversary of the forced arrival of the first 20 Africans on the coast of Jamestown, Virginia, United States – the birthplace of the American slavery.

“More than 5,000 people of African descent from all over the world participated in this event, celebrating their historical memory,” says Yankah.

“It inspired me to establish the Pan-African Heritage Museum to unite Africans and people of African descent and build the self-confidence of Africans as a people with a rich history and heritage.”

But why this museum when there are many others in Africa?

“There are less than 2,000 museums on the continent, compared to more than 30,000 in Europe and the United States,” explains the man who also founded the African University College of Communications in Ghana.

“The museum is special because it is the only one to bring together all of Africa’s heritage under one roof.”

The main architect of the project is James Inedu-George, a Nigerian famous for having been able to capture the spirit of African cultures and breathe it into his designs.

The symbol chosen for the museum is a horn, a communication tool announcing the rebirth of Africa.

The project is funded by donations and its cost is estimated at around $50 million.

But its main supporters, including President Akufo-Addo, believe the game is worth the effort.

“It will not only benefit all the peoples of the world, but it will also enable us to gain a deep awareness and understanding of the goals and ideal of Pan-Africanism.”

In addition to artifacts and research materials, the museum will also have a sculpture garden, herb garden and space for festivals, concerts, film screenings and exhibitions from the Pan-African world. .

The museum’s innovation and creativity center will be a space where young people can develop new ideas for the future after visiting the facilities.

The museum will set aside two acres of land where it will reproduce a number of African kingdoms, ancient and modern.

It will showcase their history, art, culture and draw inspiration from their indigenous skills, crafts and knowledge, which have enabled Africans to survive until today.

This is where the great flow of African “migrants” will find their place.

Mr. Yankah hopes his vision will redress our distorted heritage.

“Our heritage has been stolen and our confidence eroded by chilling tales from our past and even our present. That is why we disregard the wise words and indigenous knowledge of our own people and eloquently quote sources that are foreign to us for our daily life.”

Indeed, as the late Nigerian literary giant Chinua Achebe observed: “Until lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”

Well, we Africans now have the pen, the brush and a large canvas – it’s time to tell our story.