The Cape Coast Castle Museum in Ghana
The Cape Coast Castle Museum is housed in one of the wings of Cape Coast Castle, in the Central Region. Established in 1970, the museum was given a face-lift in 1994 by the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB), with funds from the UNDP, USAID, the Smithsonian Institution and Counterpart funding from the government of Ghana, along with support from other NGOs.
The Cape Coast Castle Museum aims to educate its visitors about the advent of Europeans to Africa and their interactions with the local communities and the Central Region in general. Visitors can view maps of slave trade routes and look at examples of the objects which were traded in for slaves – such as glass beads, whisky bottles, and firearms. Representations of the hold of a ship, as well as, auction blocks, have been constructed to simulate for guests a tiny part of the experience of the enslaved. The museum also includes exhibits on the pre-colonial history of the Central Region, in addition to displays on its contemporary culture. Visitors can view a video documentary on “Cross Roads of Trade, Cross Roads of People” putting into context the interactions between the Africans at home and those in the diaspora.
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The Cape Coast Castle Museum’s facilities include conference halls, a library, an art and craft studio, a book store and gift shop, as well as, the castle’s dungeons, the condemned cell and the “Door of No Return”.
