People&Places: The Ghanaian museum that honours the dead, promotes African heritage - Nkyinkyim

It started off as an idea and blew up some 10 years ago. The Nkyinkyim Museum is one of the biggest outdoor museums in Ghana. It is situated on several acres of land in Ada and its name is derived from the Akan Adinkra symbol – The Nkyinkyim symbol which means Twisted.

Owner and Executive Director of Nkyinkyim, Kwame Akoto Bamfo, explains that the name was inspired by the African slavery story. According to him, the history of Africans in the past is one of many twists and turns and his museum does an amazing job of capturing this story.

With beautifully sculpted pieces, portraying the story of the African slave trade, the Nkyinkyim museum has come to help promote Africanism and African heritage.

In this museum, Kwame Akoto Bamfo has an array of beautifully sculpted life-size heads about 1,500 of them made with concrete and some about 3,000 others made with terracotta (clay).

Through these art pieces, Kwame captures the different expressions that tell the story of African slaves in the past – shock, pain, fear amongst others.

He told the People & Places team that these works found at the Ancestral veneration grounds at the museum honour the memories of the departed captives who went through unfair treatment by the colonial masters.

Today he has his works in many places including the United States of America and the United Kingdom where he liaises with other scholars to explore more about African Heritage and dialogue on the same.

Watch the full interview below:

Source: ghanaweb.com