‘People cry, get angry’: remembering the enslaved in Ghana’s remarkable sculpture park

At the end of a sandy path, lined with bamboo trees, lies a clearing with thousands of clay head sculptures. One is of a woman whose hair is half done, another shows a man blindfolded. Some heads have masks signifying royalty. In a small pond are dozens more sculptures, some with shackles round their necks.

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

• Clay head sculptures lie in water at the Nykinkyim Museum in Ada, Ghana. Each one represents someone who was enslaved

“It’s emotional for me, I have to control my feelings every time I come,” says Ackah Komla Swanzy , who is a a griot (a west African storyteller and educator) and an artist who makes some of the sculptures. “These are my own people. I view them as my siblings. It’s like losing your family member who you won’t see again.”

• Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, an artist, activist and founder of the museum, models a clay head in an art workshop for visitors

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.

The museum is in Ada, about 100 miles (160km) east of the capital, Accra, and has become a place for people, mostly those of African descent, to confront the past through art and education. The 46-hectare (115-acre) site houses Akoto-Bamfo’s studio, features a visual archive of African history and culture, including models of Indigenous architecture, and pays homage to aspects of black history that are often overlooked – such as the contribution of soldiers from African countries in the first and second world wars. Visitors can choose to stay overnight at accommodation on site and take part in art workshops, pilgrimages, naming ceremonies and initiation rites.

• About 3,500 clay head sculptures are displayed in a clearing at the Nkyinkyim Museum. The aim is to complete 11,111 of them

Akoto-Bamfo, 42, who made the first sculpture of a head in 2009, says he was compelled to start the project after years of feeling “a very strong desire to do something”.

• Akoto-Bamfo made his first sculpture of a head in 2009, and founded the Nkyinkyim Museum in 2019

Growing up, he experienced the legacies of colonialism. Ghana achieved independence from the British in 1957. At school, teachers preferred people with European accents, he remembers; and a university education and spending time abroad were highly valued. “The closer you were to whiteness, the better for you in our societies. And even to a large extent, it’s the same now,” he says.

But he knew it was wrong. “There’s always something innate that draws your attention to humanity and human rights and justice … You notice something needs to be addressed and that’s what happened for me.”

He adds: “It was representation. It was telling our side of the story … I knew I wanted to address the anger and the pain and the frustrations.”

Head sculptures are a way of documenting family portraits of the dead among the Akans, the largest and most prominent ethic group in Ghana, to which Akoto-Bamfo belongs. For generations, this practice served to commemorate African ancestors until colonialism misrepresented it as linked with evil, and pushed it to the sidelines.

• Ackah Komla Swanzy, an artist and griot, stands amid some of the thousands of sculptures at the Nkyinkyim Museum

Each head takes Akoto-Bamfo up to three weeks to complete. He has a team of apprentices who help. Some, he says, are based on visions, but many are likenesses of real people. At first, he used family and friends as inspiration, but now he gets requests and photos from all over the world. The only requirement is that an individual should have a relative who is black.

There are now more than 3,500 sculptures, but the aim is to make and display 11,111 heads, a number that symbolises unity for Akoto-Bamfo.Within the clearing are baobab and acacia trees, known for their medicinal properties. It is a sacred place where traditional priests and priestesses come to pray, and to conduct ceremonies and processions.

• The heads surround baobab trees, which are known for their medicinal properties

Visitors include school groups as well as many African Americans and others from the diaspora. Hollywood actor Samuel L Jackson featured the project in his series Enslaved, the vice-president of Costa Rica has visited, and so has the US ambassador and the deputy British high commissioner in Ghana.

Visits can be highly charged and emotional. Akoto-Bamfo has seen people cry, laugh as well as get angry. He has been at the receiving end of people’s grievances around slavery and other continuing human rights abuses. Some people have asked why he allows white people into the space.

• The museum site also features a visual archive of African history and culture

“Sometimes, when people vent to me, they forget I am also black and I’m also African,” he says. “They will pour their grievances into me like I was the other and, even though I know that is not their intention, that’s a lot to take in.”

The psychological load has taken its toll on Akoto-Bamfo. In 2020, he started having panic attacks and has had to seek medical treatment on a few occasions.

• Visitors from Germany and the UK take part in an art workshop led by Akoto-Bamfo

He began therapy and has learned to control what he takes on, though he admits, his is “a tough role to play”. One day, he would like to be able to rest, but for now he can’t see beyond his “sweet burden”, finishing the 11,111 sculptures he has committed to.

The project is entirely funded by Akoto-Bamfo through art commissions and public appearances. “The bravest thing you can do as an artist is to pick up an uncomfortable human rights issue because people want to be happy with art,” he says. “People want to sip wine and feel good about themselves.”

• Statues of twins, meant to represent healing, stand at the entrance to the clearing