GHANA PAN AFRICA HERITAGE WORLD MUSEUM GETS VIRTUAL BEFORE TURNING REAL IN 2023
Ghana set to be at the centre of preserved African heritage with the construction of a $30 million complex near Accra.
The aim of Ghana‘s Pan Africa Heritage World Museum is to be the meeting point of all African cultures, by interpreting arts from an African perspective and reclaiming some of the art works taken away from the continent.
According to an official statement the aim of the project, which began in 2020, is “to create an environment for the people of African descent and all others to unlearn and relearn the history, culture and civilisation of Africa”. A virtual version of the museum has been available for worldwide viewers, since May, ahead of the official opening planned in 2023.
A museum to heal the art memory of Africa
The ambition of the museum is to provide a global vision of arts, creativity and history from an African perspective. Its founders believe that there is a need to curate and tell the story of Africa using African voices, tools and culture, because for a long time the story of African cultures has been take over by colonial and other powers. Speaking at the launch of the project, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo said that the museum will “provide a natural residence and resting place for all the looted cultural artefacts of our continent, which are housed in foreign museums and which will be returned to us.”
The PAHWM is located at Pomadze Hills, 60km away west of Accra. The main building is built in the shape of a horn, a symbol of many African civilisations. It will house the six-storey galleries of collections and artefacts. It will be surrounded by the one hectare large Pan African Heroes Park, the Palace of African Kingdoms which explains about ancient and modern states. There will be a Herbal Plant Village with various pavilions where lectures about Africa’s herbal plants will be held.
Virtual visit until 2023
The complex will have an exhibition and convention space for conferences but also festivals, concerts, film shows and exhibitions from the pan African world. The Pan African Library building will bring together young innovators and creators from across the world to exchange works on science and technology with the task to address current and future issues in Africa.
While the museum is set to be completed in 2023, the Pan African Heritage World Museum and partners launched the first digital Pan African Heritage Museum (PAHM) in May. It provides the public with a first virtual experience of what will physically come in 2023. Visitors can stroll around the galleries to the sound of African music
