Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions

Flashcards about the forts and castles in Ghana

Where can the remains of fortified trading-posts, erected between 1482 and 1786, be seen?

Along the coast of Ghana between Keta and Beyin.

What is the significance of the forts and castles in Ghana according to the World Heritage Convention?

They are directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance.

According to Smith (2006), how should heritage be understood?

As a socio-cultural process which enables us to engage with the past in order to understand the present.

What is the Authorised Heritage Discourse (AHD)?

A western-dominated, eurocentric top-down structure that seeks to normalise how we understand heritage, to privilege particular (western) heritage practices and to exclude others.

What is the main focus of the official discourse of heritage, according to Smith in Harrison (2010)?

Aesthetically pleasing or monumental things, largely on material objects and places rather than on practices or the intangible attachments between people and things.

According to Meskell (2015), what do sites operate as?

Transactional devices whereby cultural recognition both masks and enables a multifarious network of political and economic values.

What can achieving UNESCO World Heritage status provide to a country?

Upstanding global respect that functions as a means to both political and economical ends.

Who typically composes the World Heritage Committee?

State-appointed ambassadors and politicians, not heritage experts.

When did Ghana ratify the World Heritage Convention?

1975

What is a benefit of ratifying the World Heritage Convention?

Being able to access the World Heritage fund, a trust fund comprised of investments from state parties and private investors.

Why was a serial nomination chosen for the forts and castles in Ghana?

As part of a collective representation of European colonial and slave trade heritage, as well as pre-colonial trading history between Africans and Europeans.

Which advisory body to UNESCO reviewed the nomination dossier for the Forts and Castles in Ghana?

ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites)

When were the Forts and Castles in Ghana inscribed on the World Heritage List?

1979

What historical importance do the Forts and Castles hold?

A testament to enduring importance of the Atlantic slave trade and European-African encounters from the 15th to 19th centuries.

What did the forts and castles along the coast of Ghana serve as?

Links in Portuguese trading routes, built and occupied at different times by a variety of European traders (including British, Danish, German).

What trade did the forts and castles initially facilitate?

The gold trade of European chartered companies, later the slave trade and then the suppression of that trade.

Which castle, built in 1482, is one of the oldest European buildings outside Europe?

St. George’s d’Elmina Castle

What is the historic town of Elmina believed to be the location of?

The first point of contact between Europeans and sub-saharan Africans.

How can the group of forts and castles be seen?

As a unique “collective historical monument”, based on their pre-colonial history marking first point of contact between europeans sub-saharan africans, and subsequently their importance in facilitating the TAST, and represent the continuing history of the European-African encounter.

How many significant forts and castles does the site contain?

28

What are some threats that the forts and castles face?

Wave action, environmental pressures, local development pressure (quarrying), lack of adequate funding for maintenance, and there are no buffer zones for the sites.

What does the periodic changes of the forts and castles represent?

A history of change, and as symbols of trade, particularly the slave trade, they must reflect and continue to reflect the ways that they were used.

Approximately how far do the forts and castles stretch along the coast of Ghana?

Nearly 500km

Who is the primary government agency responsible for the preservation and management of the forts and castles?

Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB)

What led to debates of “whitewashing” by the African-American diaspora?

The GMMB painted the castles white during restoration period in the 1990s with funding from UNESCO.

What is the GMMB's view of the paint job done to the castles?

For the purposes of prevention against coastal erosion.

What do the presence of gift shops and restaurants at Elmina castle serve as a reminder of?

The pre-slavery market places that existed at the sites.

What do local residents and communities want to reclaim from the castles and forts?

The history of the castles and forts, and move away from them as sites of ‘dark tourism’.

What is dark tourism?

Phenomenon of presentation and consumption (by visitors) of real and commodified death and disaster sites, evolving into a research brand which has gone through a marketisation process, becoming associated with a product class that attracts specific tourists because of that product class.

What do local residents see heritage as?

A category of practice, not a category of material objects, which ties into how the authorised heritage discourse excludes certain heritage practices, creating disinheritance.

What is a disconnect between local residents and state-led heritage management projects?

Renovations are often conducted with readily available imported resources, in a manner associated with contemporary western architecture, whereas local communities are more concerned with sustaining traditional knowledge of local tools and building techniques, that would revitalise traditional African architecture, thus heritage management is seen by locals as a barrier to improving their local environment.

What may be necessary in order to meet ecological and local economy needs?

An emphasis shift from heritage tourism as an answer to sustainable development and economic prosperity, towards meeting ecological and local economy needs.

What role do chieftaincy institutions play?

Acts as a power broker, including the role of Chiefs and Queen Mothers. These local authority figures and structures are incorporated into the planning and management of international projects, without having a codified legal function, although they are legally recognised. Traditional authorities are an important stakeholder often acting in an advisory manner to the State, as 80% of land is under customary ownership.

Why is Ghana often the choice of country for diaspora homecoming?

Ghana as the first independent Black African nation is symbolically important, helps explain why Ghana is so often the choice of country for diaspora homecoming.

According to Aggenbach (2017), what is the difference between history and heritage?

History is the past, heritage is the contemporary use or interpretation of the past.

Which historical layers deserve more attention in sites like Elmina Castle?

It is contested which of its historical layers deserves more of the attention. Dutch tourists are interested in 2 centuries of dutch rule, British are interested in being exposed to British colonial rule.

Which room has an emotive interest by local Ashanti people in the castles?

The room where King Prempeh 1st was imprisoned by the British.

What is commodification of heritage?

The process by which tangible or intangible heritage is transformed into cultural commodities to be bought and sold, and profited from in the heritage and tourism industry.

What is the purpose of heritage tourism?

Produces a commodity.

What characterizes Urry’s (2002) theory of the ‘tourist gaze’?

The ‘gaze’, though differing in time and place due to its societal construction, as what tourists expect to see in local communities, this gaze is reflected back by the communities for financial gain, and in attempt to protect themselves from the tourists’ intrusions. This results in ‘staged authenticity’.

How can local communities be reduced to commodities?

Certain heritage aspects that might not be as easily commodifiable may eventually be lost due to the domination of economic gain, which is particularly relevant for postcolonial countries seeking to overturn historical colonial dynamics.

What is an important concept for questions raised by slavery heritage?

The implicit dissonance in commodifying TAST-related sites, creating place products, and creating messages that disinherit some people.

Presenting slavery heritage for tourist consumption is a consequence of what?

Contested collective memory heightened by strong emotional attachment.

What is the GMMB responsible for?

The protection and management of Ghana's cultural heritage under the National Museum Act of 1969.

What was initiated in response to longstanding management challenges?

An Integrated Management Plan (IMP) with support from UNESCO. The plan aims to address issues such as conservation, community involvement, and sustainable development.

What limitations does the GMMB face?

Staffing and funding, impacting regular monitoring and maintenance activities.

What are interactions between stakeholders culminate?

Political, Social, and Spatial contested heritage.

What does the UNESCO designation of TAST-related sites as World Heritage Sites result in?

A commodification of TAST-related sites, which unduly emphasis the sites’ tourism value.

What does the politics of heritage center around?

Ideas of who “owns” and controls the heritage.

What was the plan of African Descendants Association Foundation (ADAF) for Fort Amsterdam (Fort Cormantine )?

To restore the fort and turn it into a memorial to the TAST.

What was the reason of government (particularly Commission for Education) and Ghana’s Museum and Monument and Board (GMMB) raised criticism to ADAF?

Because neither were involved in the project, whilst being custodians of all national monuments. They felt the lease was too long, and wanted GMMB employees to take tourists round the fort presenting history as objectively as possible.

Why the contract for the lease for Fort Amsterdam was terminated in 1973 by the Ghanaian government?

The contract for the lease was terminated in 1973 by the Ghanaian government because the ghanaian and dutch state, what was important was commemorating the fort as a site of early european presence of the west african coast, that would serve as a launchpad for contemporary socio-politico-economic relations, and not challenge the status quo: ADAF still felt questions over the legacy of slavery were unanswered.

What intensifies tensions when each group interprets or uses slavery heritage differently?

Differing social status, inheritance, and kinship intensifies tensions.

What locals criticizes from the diaspora?

Locals resist the diaspora’s focus on slave memories tied to fort sites, the local narrative includes broader histories of colonialism and independence struggles, also locals criticise the diaspora for not financially contributing to the sites’ preservation.

What is dissonant heritage?

Heritage that is actively being contested, multi-layered with meanings and values inscribed by different actors that are not in consonance with each other or necessarily in conflict.

How heritage can be selectively remembered?

Some memories are seen as “undesirable”—too painful, politically inconvenient, or morally challenging through concept of ‘undesirable transmission’.

According to Halbwachs (1950) what shapes collective memory?

Collective memory is shaped by social groups, and usually, the memory of the dominant subgroup—politically or culturally—tends to become accepted as the official or public version of history.

What is UNESCO Slave Route Project (SRP)?

Helped broaden awareness of inland routes and highlighted that slave trade imagery often centers southern perspectives (such as slaves marching along the coast).

What is the impact of tied to a specific place tourist's experiences?

It reinforces collective slave memory tied to place: both a representation of the past that sees our presence in the present as proof of the horrific past’s resolution.

What impact has the current interpretation of heritage sites?

The current interpretation often privileges colonial history, with less focus on African agency, resistance, or postcolonial memory work.

What is remembering the history of the slave trade and slavery?

About coming to terms with historical injustice and race discrimination, as it is about resistance and survival.

What do heritage sites market?

Emotional and symbolic connections to the past. Tourist experiences are designed to trigger memories or imaginings of ancestral suffering, survival, or origin especially for ‘root’ tourists.

What is the commodification of memory?

Packaging and presenting it in ways that are emotionally engaging, satisfying, and often structured to meet visitor expectations.

What is the politics of naming according to root tourists?

Many root tourists feel that calling such properties as Elmina Castle and Cape Coast castles hides the history of their underground dungeons where enslaved people were held captive, instead European notions of castles as spectacles of architectural grandeur and palaces for Disney princesses takes precedence.

What does Liliane Weissberg (1999) speaks about in relation to restoration at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp?

Who has control over whether it is allowed to be preserved, refurbished, should it be allowed to decline? Such sites are at the intersection of commemoration, preservation and the consumerism of trauma, conflicts over musealisation and canonisation.

What does Aggenbach argue on the effects of commodification?

Commodification of cultural heritage can impact its significance.

What did Bos examine?

Contested heritage in Ghana’s slave castles.

What issues are addressed by Fredholm?

Negotiation of a dominant heritage discourse in Cape Coast, Ghana.

How does Schramm analyze African homecoming?

Through pan-African ideology and contested heritage.

What does Smith define heritage as?

A cultural process.

What is Urry's theory?

The Tourist Gaze, which explores expectations and commodification.

What is heritage tourism?

An analysis of heritage and cultural tourism with a marketing-focused approach.

What is the topic of Finley’s article?

The Door of (No) Return, referring to the experiences in TAST.

What issues are identified by Yankholmes and McKercher?

They advocate for Rethinking slavery heritage tourism.

What does Fields analyze in her study?

Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States of America and its societal effect.