Museum of Nzema Culture and History

The Museum of Nzema Culture and History is an eco-museum housed inside the restored Fort Apollonia in Beyin, in the Jomoro District of Ghana's Western Region. Fort Apollonia was founded by the British between 1765 and 1771 and is described as the last fort built along the Gold Coast. After years of neglect, the fort was restored with funds from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and became home to the museum, which opened in 2010.

The museum is dedicated to Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president and the most important figure from the Nzema area. Its stated aims are to serve as a cultural, historical and symbolic reference for local identity and language preservation, to promote knowledge and safeguarding of the territory through eco-touristic trails in the Amanzule wetlands, and to share research of the Italian Ethnological Mission to Ghana, active since 1954.

Exhibits are designed to be experienced through reading, touching, smelling and hearing. They cover clan emblems, traditional festivals, traditional treatments of disease, the Amansuri ecosystem and traditional talking drums. The fort also functions as a conservation education centre, used for workshops, arts and crafts, temporary exhibitions and performances.

The project was implemented by the Italian NGO COSPE together with the University of Rome "La Sapienza", the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, the Ghana Wildlife Society, the Centre for National Culture, the Ghana Tourist Board, the Western and Eastern Nzema Traditional Councils, the Jomoro and Ellembele District Assemblies and SNV.

Beyin lies within the Amansuri wetland, about 90 km west of Takoradi. The site is managed by the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, whose Central and Western Regions office is at Cape Coast Castle, Cape Coast, and can be reached on +233-3321 32529. Published GMMB information lists opening hours of 9:00am to 4:30pm, while a separate GMMB page for the museum states 8:30am to 5:00pm daily; visitors should confirm current hours before travelling. Fees published by GMMB and reviewed in February 2013 were GH¢ 5.00 for Ghanaian adults, GH¢ 2.00 for tertiary students with ID, GH¢ 1.00 for students, GH¢ 0.50 for pupils from primary to JHS 3, USD 10.00 for adult foreigners, USD 7.00 for foreign students with ID and USD 2.00 for foreign children, or the equivalent in Ghana cedis. These figures are dated and should be treated as indicative only.