Clay heads remember those lost to slavery

At the end of a sandy path, lined with bamboo trees, lies a clearing with thousands of clay head sculptures.

- By Sarah Johnson

One is of a woman whose hair is half done, another shows a man blindfolded. In a small pond are dozens more sculptures, some with shackles round their necks.

Each head placed at the Nkyinkyim Museum in Ghana represents someone who was enslaved and taken from the continent of Africa by Europeans to face a life of brutality and death.

"It's emotional for me, I have to control my feelings every time I come," said Ackah Komla Swanzy, who is a griot (a west African storyteller and educator) and artist who makes some of the sculptures. "These are my own people. I view them as my siblings."

The sculptures are part of the Ancestor Project, conceived by Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, an artist, educator and activist, who founded the museum in 2019. Nkyinkyim is an Akan word that means "twisting". It is also the name of a symbol that represents the nature of life's journey and the characteristics required to thrive in it.