Paul Jenkins explores questions about representation, cultural context, and historical meaning in a photograph by Basel Mission doctor Rudolf Fisch. The photograph was taken at the beginning of the 20th century in Akwapim, the traditional Akon Kingdom in Ghana.
Mamprugu’s First Fire Festival Image
Famed French artist Edouard Riou illustrated Capt. Binger’s observance of the Fire Festival in Walewale in September 1888.
Tanfiok-Naamaa Rock Paintings of Jilik, Ghana
One of Ghana’s five known ancient rock art sites. This one features men, crocodiles and other animals.
Gwollu Slave Defense Wall
In a small community near the Ghana-Burkina Faso border stands one of the only two remaining slave defense walls in Ghana. This historical monument in the Ghana’s town of Gwollu is a reminder of the dark history and dangers of the slave trade in the remote northern “hinterlands.”
Ghana’s Historic Mosques: The Lost Ones
Only six historic Sudano-Sahelian mud mosques remain in Ghana today. Here I look at historic images of the now extinct monuments and some of the ruins of those still barely standing.
Ghana’s Historic Mosques: Larabanga
The history of Ghana’s most famous mud mosque is shrouded in mystery and myth. Not only is the Larabanga mosque a popular architectural monument in West Africa but a revered spiritual site.
A Jingle from Ghana’s Famine of ’77
An old Mampruli jingle is a reminder of the famine that plagued northern Ghana in the late 70s and the corruption that exacerbated its horrific effects.
Ghana’s Historic Mosques: Banda Nkwanta
A historic Sudano-Sahelian mud mosque stands tall at a heavily trafficked junction in Banda Nkwanta in Ghana’s Northern Region.
Ghana’s Historic Mosques: Maluwe
Maluwe is a small village in northwestern Ghana that has one of the nation’s remaining six mud mosques. Its mosque may be the youngest with oral tradition placing its construction in the 1940s. The building’s structure has been modified significantly in recent decades.