Awareness of the present cannot be separated from knowledge of one's past. This is precisely the purpose of the Nkyinkyim Museum in Accra, which the Italian Ambassador to Ghana, Laura Ranalli, wanted to visit. It is a constantly evolving museum that combines African art, history and entertainment, as well as intangible cultural heritage such as percussion, dances and traditional rituals.
The museum experience is the brainchild of internationally renowned Ghanaian artist Kwame Akoto Bamfo, who has dedicated a series of installations to African history, culture and religions, and is designed to guide visitors towards healing and restorative justice, healing from the legacies of slavery and African colonialism.
The exhibition bears witness to the generations lost to the slave trade, represented by hundreds of faces emerging from the earth, while votive objects placed under trees are designed to pacify their souls. Another section of the museum is dedicated to the greats of Pan-Africanism, depicted in a long mural, while other sections emphasise more traditional aspects of Ghanaian culture, such as the part where modern versions of fertility dolls are displayed.
"The visit to Nkyinkyim was a particularly meaningful experience," said Ambassador Ranalli, "since some of its installations are proposed as a synthesis of African culture and traditions and invite us to study them in depth; other installations, the most touching, lead us instead to reflect on the horrors of history and the need to find forms of reconciliation.
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