Museums in Ghana

Ghana's museums are as varied as the country itself. Some sit inside centuries-old forts and castles on the coast, where the story of the slave trade is told at Elmina Castle, Ussher Fort in James Town and Fort Prinzenstein at Keta. Others celebrate kingship and craft, such as the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi, the Yaa Asantewaa Museum at Ejisu and the Bonwire Kente Museum in the historic weaving town. A few look further back still: the Hani Archaeological Site near Begho preserves a medieval trading town, while the Salaga slave wells in the Savannah Region mark one of West Africa's largest slave markets.

What they share is a deep sense of place. Almost every one is tied to a town, a people or an event, from the Asante shrine house at Ejisu Besease, one of the UNESCO-listed Asante Traditional Buildings, to the small Navrongo Basilica Museum in the Upper East Region. They differ in scale and mood. Accra's National Museum of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park are grand, national statements, while the Elmina Java Museum and the Bisa Aberwa Museum in Sekondi-Takoradi are intimate, privately run collections with a personal passion behind them. Regional museums in Bolgatanga and Koforidua, and Fort Apollonia's Museum of Nzema Culture and History at Beyin, keep local material culture alive.