Museums you may not know existed in Ghana

Museums have always been a great part of history as they serve as a preservation hub for historical, scientific, artistic or cultural artifacts and relics.

While they are a good place for tourism, they also serve as a knowledge center where generations can learn about their history, culture and ancestry among other things.

Ghana has quite a number of museums under the Ghana museums and Monuments Board; the National Museum, Museum of Science and Technology, the Volta Regional Museum among others.

There are others however that are not really known. Thus www.ghanaweb.com has compiled a number of them in this piece:

Prempeh Jubilee Museum

The Prempeh Jubilee Museum is a museum located in Kumasi, Ghana. Established in 1954, the museum, though small has a fascinating introduction to the Ashanti culture and history.

Relics relating to the Ashanti king Prempeh II, including the king's war attire, ceremonial clothing, jewellery, protective amulets, personal equipment for bathing and dining, furniture, royal insignia and some fine brass weights for weighing gold can all be found in this museum.

Constructed to resemble an Ashanti chief's house, it has a courtyard in front and walls adorned with traditional carved symbols.

Among the museum's intriguing photos is a rare one of the famous Golden Stool. The museum also contains the fake golden stool handed over to the British in 1900.

Prempeh Museum

Kumasi Fort and Military Museum

The Kumasi Fort and Military Museum is one of few military museums in Africa. It is located in the Uaddara Barracks in Kumasi, the capital city of the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The Prempeh Museum, Kumasi Cultural Centre, Kumasi Zoo and Kumasi Central market are all within walking distance of the fort.

The Kumasi Fort was built in 1820 by the Asantehene (the King of the Asante Kingdom), Osei Tutu Kwamina, to resemble the coastal forts which were built by European merchants. Kumasi Fort had to be rebuilt in 1897, after it was destroyed by British forces in 1874. The fort was built from granite and brown soil that was brought from Cape Coast to Kumasi by porters.

Exhibits include: military equipment, artefacts and other objects used in the British-Asante war of 1990 and during the Second World War. The collection includes weapons of war, colours, medals, armoured cars, anti-aircraft guns, photographs and portraits. This serves as a valuable historical institution for tracing the evolution and development of the Gold Coast Regiment of the colonial era, to the present-day Ghana Armed Forces.

Military Museum

Ecomuseum of Cocoa

The Ecomuseum of Cocoa is a museum located in Cape Coast, Ghana. It is located on the grounds of the still-operating Tikal Cacao Plantation. The museum offers an array of activities including a chocolate-making demonstration, a re-creation of an ancient Maya rain ritual, and informational topics of cocoa.

It was established in 2007.

Elmina Java Museum

The Elmina Java Museum is a museum in Elmina, Ghana, dedicated to the history of the so-called Belanda Hitam; soldiers recruited in the 19th century in the Dutch Gold Coast to serve in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. The museum is funded by the Edward A. Ulzen Memorial Foundation.



Elmina Java Museum

Gramophone Records Museum and Research Center of Ghana

The Gramophone Records Museum and Research Centre of Ghana (GRMRC) is a museum dedicated to preserving Ghanaian recordings. It was founded by Kwame Sarpong and opened to the public in December 1994. It is located in the Centre for National Culture in Cape Coast.

In 2003, the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology in Canada began sponsoring a project to digitize Highlife recordings from the museum's collections. Some of the museum's holdings have been transferred to CD for the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center.



Gramophone Records Museum and Research Center of Ghana

Nurom Hat Museum

The Kumasi Hat Museum is located on the top floor of the Nurom Hotel and houses the extensive hat collection of Chief Nana Kofi Gyemfi II, which includes more than 2,000 hats from all corners of the world.

Ussher Fort

Ussher Fort Museum is located within Ussher Fort, a former European stronghold in Accra. It was opened in 2007, having been developed by Ghana’s Ministry of Tourism, in partnership with the European Union and UNESCO.

The museum aims to draw the attention of Ghanaians and tourists to the history of the slave trade in Ghana.

The story of the industry’s development and impact is told inside the museum through wall paintings and through the display of articles once used by the captors and their victims.



Ussher Fort Museum

Exhibits include: shackles, weaponry, drinking cups made of clay, large grinding stones; a model of a slave vessel; wall paintings depicting the coming of the Europeans and their subsequent treatment of slaves; and images of those who fought for the abolition of the slave trade, such as William Wilberforce, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, John Russwurm, John H. Lawson, Henry Highland and Samuel Ringgold Ward.