Plans are underway to build the first ever slave museum in Ghana to serve as a monument to the Transnational Slave Trade. The slave trade was one of the most dastardly acts of man’s inhumanity against fellow humans in the history of the world.
The plan to build the museum is being discussed between city experts in Liverpool, England and some local Ghanaian chiefs, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Work on the the museum which will be located in Cape Coast in the Central region is expected to begin this year.
According to the report, staff from the city’s International Slavery Museum pledged their aid following a visit from Professor Nana Ayensu and Nana Barima Kwame Nkyi who were in the UK to seek their help and advice before building the museum in Ghana.
President Mills is aware of the plan to build the museum the report indicated.
A monument in the name of the slave trade is a good idea as it would constantly serve as a reminder of that devastating act which negative effect on the entire African continent can be found.
Apart from serving as a grim reminder of the devastating effect of the trade which according to some scholars like Walter Rodney was no trade at all in the real sense, it will serve as a relevant and profitable tourist attraction.
Sadly, while the full story of the slave trade may never be known, the reality is that, the slave trade involved plunder, brutality and the gross abuse of the human rights of Africans.
The exact number of Africans shipped from the continent into slavery has never been known and probably would never be known. No one would ever know how many died or were brutally murdered on the high seas. There are however, various figures documented in some studies.
According to H. Thomas, a Historian, during the period of the slave trade, at least 13 million Africans were illegally transported from the shores of West Africa to the Western Hemisphere. Of those 13 million, approximately 11, 328,000 were delivered to the New World, amounting to the trans-shipment murder of approximately 1, 672, 000 persons, or 13% of the cargo.
Read this article for more details.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
What about the Dutch?They still are very quiet about their past.
Why don’t they build museums in Africa and tell their children about the horrible past.
We are very quick to point at someone else, but what we have done to the African people is a holocaust too.
Brazil was the last country to abunden slavery, just after Holland.
I am stunned by the claim from some people purporting to build a slavery museum in Cape Coast. The only slavery museum to be built in Cape Coast is not the one being claimed by some individuals, but one which the Ghana government has already leased land near the Cape Coast castle for development. The Cape Coast Slavery Museum project which will be developed by the Slavery Foundation and the Oguaa Traditional Council has been endorsed by the Central Regional Coordinating Council, the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly, Central Regional Development Commission (CEDECOM), and the Ministry of Tourism. Any claim by any individual or group of individuals is therefore fraudulent and not based on what is on the ground. Please check with the named organizations above to confirm the veracity of this statement.
Oh Please. How could you not include the input and assisstance of the living descendants of the stolen victims. Those being black African-Americans and those in the Carribinean and South America. Any claim to accuracy can not be stated without the inputs from these forementioned groups.
what good does reminding urself that it ancestors were once enslaved by Europeans do?? None !! it creates more negative inferiority in the minds of people!! Let’s remind ourselves of great things that have happened to us..such will create positive and superior thoughts and feelings in us as a people!!!such reminders should be burnt and blown up!!