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These essays reexamine European forts in West Africa as hubs where different peoples interacted, negotiated and transformed each other socially, politically, culturally, and economically. This collection brings together scholars of history, archaeology, cultural studies, and others to present a nuanced image of fortifications, showing that over time the functions and impacts of the buildings changed as the motives, missions, allegiances, and power dynamics in the region also changed. Focusing on the fortifications of Ghana, the authors discuss how these structures may be interpreted as connecting Ghanaian and West African histories to a multitude of global histories. They also enable greater understanding of the fortifications' contemporary use as heritage sites, where the Afro-European experience is narrated through guided tours and museums.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Interpreting West Africa's European Fortifications.- 2. Grossfriedrichsburg, the First German Colony in Africa?: Brandenburg-Prussia, Atlantic entanglements and national memory.- 3. 'Far from my native land, and far from you': reimagining the British at Cape Coast Castle in the nineteenth century.- 4. Viewed from a Distance: eighteenth-century printed images of fortifications on the coast of West Africa.- 5. Illusions of Grandeur and Protection? Perceptions and (mis)representations of the defensive efficacy of European-built Fortifications on the Gold Coast, 17th-early 19th Centuries.- 6. Female Agency in a Cultural Confluence: Women, trade and politics in seventeenth and eighteenth century Gold Coast society.- 7. Fort Metal Cross: commercial epicentre of the British on the Gold Coast.- 8. European Fortifications in West Africa as Architectural Containers and Oppressive Contraptions.- 9. A Theatre of Memory of the Transatlantic Slave Trade: Cape Coast Castle and its Museum.- 10. Diplomacy, Identity and Appropriation of the "Door of No Return": President Barack Obama and family in Ghana and the Cape Coast Castle, 2009.- 11. Re-Creating Pre-Colonial Forts and Castles: heritage policies and restoration practices in the Gold Coast/Ghana, 1945 to 1970s.
About the author
John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu is Associate Professor in the Department of Historical Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway. He is a member of the Editorial Committee of the Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana.
Victoria Ellen Smith is a Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Ghana. She is Founding Curator of the Adu Boahen Memorial Library and Archive.
Summary
These essays reexamine European forts in West Africa as hubs where different peoples interacted, negotiated and transformed each other socially, politically, culturally, and economically. This collection brings together scholars of history, archaeology, cultural studies, and others to present a nuanced image of fortifications, showing that over time the functions and impacts of the buildings changed as the motives, missions, allegiances, and power dynamics in the region also changed. Focusing on the fortifications of Ghana, the authors discuss how these structures may be interpreted as connecting Ghanaian and West African histories to a multitude of global histories. They also enable greater understanding of the fortifications’ contemporary use as heritage sites, where the Afro-European experience is narrated through guided tours and museums.
