Slave museum to be built in Ghana

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 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 trade which 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.