Kwame Akoto-Bamfo: The Ghanaian Artist Using Work About Slavery To Find Justice And Healing

(MENAFN- The Conversation) Thousands of sculpted heads - captive African men, women, and children - meticulously created by the artist Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, emerge from the soil at the Nkyinkyim Museum, as a sacred gathering of ancestors. Together, they form a powerful monument to the horror, violence, and resistance to enslavement, as well as the ongoing work of remembrance and healing.

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo.

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo is a Ghanaian multidisciplinary artist who engages with the histories and legacies of the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism at home and, increasingly, internationally, on both sides of the Atlantic.

As an archaeologist who works in the field of critical heritage studies, Akoto-Bamfo's work is important for its powerful engagement with memory, material culture and restorative justice. I feature it in a chapter of a new book that I co-edited called Architectures of Slavery: Ruins and Reconstructions.

Who is Kwame Akoto-Bamfo?

Akoto-Bamfo studied at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. He obtained his bachelor's and master of fine arts degrees, both in sculpture. After graduating, the artist worked as a school teacher and a university lecturer.

In 2015, Akoto-Bamfo rose to international fame through a series of large-scale installations. He called it 'Nkyinkyim' (“twisting” in the Ghanaian Twi language, as in the proverb,“Life's journey is twisted”).

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Four years later, he established the 'Nkyinkyim Museum ', a non-profit organisation known as the 'Ancestor Project'. This open-air museum is located in Nuhalenya-Ada, a two-hour drive from Accra. It has become a space for people of African descent to engage in restorative healing through art and education.

Nkyinkyim Museum

At the site's entrance, three twenty-five-foot monuments are displayed. They are made of stone, concrete and wood. The first is inspired by North and Eastern Africa, and the second by Sudano-Sahelian architecture. The third is inspired by the Forest regions in Central and West Africa.

Sculptures at the museum entrance. Kwame Akoto-Bamfo

The collection includes multiple installations in collaboration with the local community. They illustrate“the diversity in our narratives surrounding history, philosophy, and religious beliefs”. The artist himself, demonstrates a mastery of multimedia art forms, working in cement, terracotta, brass, copper, and wood, noting“one can reach different heights with different technologies.”

Today, the museum features a sacred healing space with a compelling display of thousands of unique concrete life size heads and 7,000 terracotta miniature sculpted heads. They include captive Africans abducted, sold and forcibly trafficked during the transatlantic slave trade.

An installation of the heads of enslaved people. Kwame Akoto-Bamfo

His sculptures capture captives' shock, horror, anger, distress and fear-emotions. This is communicated through their facial expressions in an installation that is disturbingly evocative and profoundly haunting. It is inspired by 'nsodie ', an Akan funerary sculpture tradition, that dates back to approximately the twelfth century. Akoto-Bamfo explains during our conversations relating to the research for book:

Each year, the annual 'Ancestor Veneration' ceremony takes place under the guidance of chiefs, priests, and priestess from various ethnic groups.

The museum displays 7,000 terracotta sculpted heads. Kwame Akoto-Bamfo

Visitors are invited to participate in certain Akan rites and ceremonies – free from photography and selfies that undermine or commercialise sacred funerary art practices. Says Akoto-Bamfo:

In contrast, the 'Freedom Parade Festival' allows participants to creatively express and contribute to an evolving heritage tradition, without the specified observances. For example, painted bodily adornment applied directly onto the skin, yet without the necessary spiritual rites.

A protest monument

Akoto-Bamfo's sculptures have also gained recognition beyond Ghana's borders. For instance, the permanent installation at the Legacy Museum and National Museum for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama in the US.

More recently, in 2021, his Blank Slate Project Monument toured throughout the United States. This included stops at Times Square in New York and the King Center in Atlanta. It depicts an enslaved ancestor, bent forward with his hands behind his back, head turned sideways, face on the ground, with a booted foot on his head.

The Blank Slate Monument in New York. Roshi Sariaslan

Akoto-Bamfo describes this work as“a noisy one - a protest piece that speaks against racist Civil War monuments.” The work was completed prior to the police killing of George Floyd that led to widespread protests in the US in 2020. It was first unveiled in a private viewing in Ghana, prior to its shipment to the United States.

He says:

The work is interactive. It holds a removable placard that invites viewers to inscribe their reactions to the statue, which are then exhibited. Akoto-Bamfo emphasises:

In Europe too, his work is featured at the 169 Museum in Germany.

The effects of enslavement are still felt today. Kwame Akoto-Bamfo

In Ghana, Akoto-Bamfo's work was initially seen as too controversial. The artist shares:

He adds:

Akoto-Bamfo offers a closing reflection on why this kind of memory work matters:

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