Bentsifi’s Tattle: Going forward with the past

Memory, museums and the responsibility of remembrance: Why Ghana’s slave dungeons must become an experience we feel, not just a story we hear.

Some places ask us to remember. Others demand that we feel. On the grounds of Osu Castle this past Juneteenth, history stepped out from the pages of books and into the realm of experience. Against the backdrop of one of Ghana’s most significant slave forts, actors reenacted scenes from the transatlantic slave trade – capture, separation, confinement and departure. Families were torn apart. Ancestors were marched toward an uncertain horizon. The Atlantic loomed beyond. For many in attendance, the performance was more than theatre; it was memory made visible.

The event formed part of  ‘The Next Step Conference’, the Global Reparatory Justice Conference, which brought together African leaders, members of the African diaspora, policy–makers and advocates to advance conversations around historical accountability, reparations and the enduring legacy of slavery. Voices from across Africa and the Caribbean present – including Dr. Julius Garvey, Speaker of the Council of the Nation of Algeria H.E. Azouz Nasri and the Prime Minister of Barbados Ms. Mia Amor Mottley – called for deeper cooperation, renewed commitments to justice and stronger connections between the continent and its global descendants.

The message was clear. The story of transatlantic enslavement is not over. Its consequences continue to shape societies, identities, economies and relationships across the world. And its remembrance remains unfinished work.

It was within this context that Ghana’s Foreign Minister announced plans for a new Museum on the Transatlantic Enslavement – an institution intended to honour the memory of those who suffered, tell the truth about slavery, educate future generations and provide a home for restituted artefacts returning to Ghana.

Significantly, this proposed museum is most welcome. However, it also invites reflection on whether Ghana already possesses the foundations for such an undertaking through the Pan African Heritage Museum. Conceived as a world-class institution dedicated to African history, memory, restitution, cultural heritage and reconnection with the global African diaspora, its vision already encompasses the story of transatlantic enslavement as a central chapter in the African experience. 

In a call for alignment rather than duplication, PaJohn Dadson asks whether a museum dedicated to enslavement, remembrance and restitution might find its most powerful expression within an expanded and strengthened Pan African Heritage Museum vision.

Hosted under the auspices of President John Dramani Mahama, the Juneteenth reenactment at Osu Castle offered something largely missing from the conversation that began with the Year of Return: a visceral reminder of what transpired during the centuries of capture, forced submission and displacement that fuelled the transatlantic slave trade.

More than theatre, it was memory made visible – a powerful encounter with a history whose consequences continue to shape the African world today.

In doing so, it also highlighted an important truth, that Ghana’s challenge is not a shortage of museum concepts, nor is this an argument against new investment in slavery remembrance and reparatory justice. Rather, it is about delivering world-class heritage infrastructure that serves Ghana, Africa and the global African diaspora.

The question is not whether we need spaces dedicated to memory, but how best to create them; because memory deserves more than buildings, it deserves encounter.

Perhaps the most powerful lesson of the Juneteenth reenactment at Osu Castle was that remembrance becomes most meaningful when history is not merely observed, but experienced.

For generations, visitors have walked through the dungeons of Cape Coast, Elmina and other slave forts, listening to accounts of confinement, separation and loss. The facts are devastating and the stories compelling; yet there remains a profound difference between hearing history and truly feeling it.

By bringing the human realities of enslavement to life, the Osu Castle reenactment transformed historical knowledge into emotional understanding,  demonstrating the power of immersive interpretation.

It pointed toward an important future for Ghana’s heritage sector, one in which preservation is complemented by meaningful engagement, allowing memory to become not only something we learn, but something we encounter.

Around the world, museums, memorials and heritage sites are exploring ways to deepen connection through interpretation, storytelling, technology and carefully curated experiences. Not to alter history, nor to sensationalise suffering, but to help people understand.

The slave forts of Ghana occupy a unique place within this conversation. These are not merely historical monuments. They are sacred landscapes of memory that stand at the intersection of African history, global migration, diaspora identity and contemporary conversations about justice and repair.

Every corridor carries memory. Every dungeon holds silence. Every doorway opening toward the Atlantic tells a story. Yet, perhaps, there remains room to make those stories more present.

To create experiences that allow visitors not merely to learn about the past, but to encounter it. Not through spectacle, but through empathy. Not through invention, but through interpretation.

Imagine visitors moving through thoughtfully curated environments that illuminate the realities of the trade in human beings. Imagine spaces for contemplation overlooking the ocean that carried millions away from their homeland.

Imagine immersive galleries that connect the histories of enslavement, resistance, survival and diaspora to contemporary conversations about identity, belonging and restitution.

Such experiences would not replace the castles; they would deepen their significance. And this is where the discussion about museums, reparations and remembrance begins to converge.

The movement for reparatory justice is often framed in political or economic terms. Yet at its heart lies something profoundly human: the desire for recognition of suffering, resilience and of historical truth.

Museums, memorials and heritage sites play an essential role in that process. They help societies remember what happened, understand why it matters and imagine how to move forward.

As President John Mahama observed during the conference, history does not ask us to inherit guilt. It asks us to inherit responsibility. Perhaps that responsibility requires us to think beyond individual projects and toward a broader national vision.

A vision in which forts, museums, memorial landscapes, restitution initiatives and diaspora engagement programmes work together as part of a coherent ecosystem of remembrance.

One in which the Pan African Heritage Museum becomes a central platform through which stories of enslavement, resistance, restitution and reconnection are interpreted, experienced and shared.

As Ghana charts its next chapter in heritage, tourism and reparatory justice, the challenge before us may not be simply to build new institutions, but to create deeper ways of remembering. Some stories are too important to exist only in archives, stone walls or museum displays. They must be experienced, carried and felt.

For memory achieves its greatest purpose when it moves beyond preservation and into encounter. It must move us, change us and deepen our understanding of the past, while compelling us to carry forward the responsibility of remembrance with greater humanity, empathy and purpose.

The post Bentsifi’s Tattle: Going forward with the past appeared first on The Business & Financial Times.

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