Self-discovery @ Osu Castle
A Ghanaian archaeologist, Prof Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, stands supervising the ongoing archaeological work on the excavations of portions of the Osu Castle, also known as Fort Christiansborg in Osu, Accra, Ghana's capital, for the discovery of historical artefacts.
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The castle that sits on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea in Africa was partly built by Denmark and Norway in the 1660s, and served as the Danish trading post during the transatlantic slave trade, trafficking captive Africans overseas.
Transactions generally took place in the castle courtyard where guns, ammunition, liquor, cloth, iron tools, brass objects, smoking pipes, tobacco, cloth and glass beads were exchanged for gold, ivory and captive Africans.
Between 1660 and 1806, the Danes transported approximately 126,000 captive African men, women and children to plantations in the Danish West Indies – today the United States.
The castle is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, besides being used as the seat of administration for the former Danish trading post, the British colonial administration, and subsequently after independence, office of the President of Ghana.
Ancestry
Prof Engmann, Director of the Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project (CAHP) in Ghana, traces her ancestry to the Danish Governor, Cal Gustav Engmann, who worked and lived in the Christiansborg Castle (1752-1757) to champion the sale of captive Africans.
Excavation work on portions of the Osu Castle in Accra
The governor’s name and when he worked and lived in the castle has been written on a water cistern there.
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“As I grew up as a child, the belief that my family descended from a Danish Christian missionary stationed in Ghana was there’’, Professor Engmann said.
“This illusion came to an end several years ago when, as a graduate student, I went to visit my aunt in Accra, Ghana. As we shared some spicy plantain fritters called in Ga language (tatale), she told me, ‘Go to “The Castle” and see your name inscribed on a wall’, she recalled.
Carl Gustav Engmann, she learnt, was her great great great great great grandfather, a governor of Christiansborg who married Ashiokai, the daughter of an Osu Chief.
A volunteer archaelogist showing a ceramic cup found during excavation work at the Osu Castle in Accra
Professor Engmann, who earned her PhD from Stanford University in the US, also holds dual citizenship as English and Ghanaian, said following the conversation with her aunty and consulting her grand uncle, who had complied an extensive family tree, she made an appointment to visit the Castle, which was then occupied by offices of the President of the Republic of Ghana.
“On arrival, I met the President’s special advisor and toured the premises. My aunt was correct: sure enough, in the castle courtyard, I discovered a water cistern inscribed with the name Carl Gustav Engmann’’, she said.
Inspired to understand the life of African and European relationship during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Professor Engmann founded the Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project (CAHP), to further investigate and establish with concrete evidence the history of the indigenous inhabitants of the Osu land which is often told orally.
Project
The project is currently being funded with grants and awards from the US and some organisations.
A bottle found during the excavation
The CAHP initiative which started in 2014 was aimed, among other things, to further enrich the history of Ghana, whose story is heavily impacted by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
Over 180,000 artefacts discovered included the foundation of what appeared to be a human settlement within the castle with different compartments like a kitchen
The artifacts include glass bottles, clay smoking pipes, ceramics dishes, bottles, hoes, water bottles, beads, cowries, broken pots, and grinding tools, have been discovered from the excavation.
Some of the objects are from Africa, Europe, and Asia. Others are presidential ceramic cups used during the post-colonial era.
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Professor Engmann, in an interview said the excavation of the archaeological artefacts would go a long way to boost Ghana’s tourism and help to re-write the country’s history to know the historical journey of Ghana with the Danes, the Europeans and the British during the pre and the post-slave trade periods.
Prof. Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann (right) and her mum Dorothy, at the cistern on which is the name, Danish Governor, Cal Gustav Engmann, at the Osu Castle in Accra
Some of the items, she said, were believed to have been used by the Danish slave traders, euro Africans and Africans.
Members of some indigenous trained artists, excavators and community members from families in Osu said they had gained much knowledge of their ancestral history and knowledge of archaeological work through the CAHP initiative.
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They said they had learnt a lot, and that the project had impacted their lives positively through employment and education which had helped to reduce some social vices indulged in by the youth within the Osu community.
Odenkey Annan, a volunteer archaeologist from Osu, said they had discovered many artefacts and it had been a great experience,’’ I have learnt a lot.
CAHP
Professor Engmann said the CAHP was also undertaking a Community Mural Project that involved mural representation of the artefacts discovered and ways of life of the forebears in a quest to preserve and protect the cultural heritage of the people of Osu.
Mural painting
The mural paintings portrayed images of warriors, scholars, physicians, steel workers, fishermen, fishmongers, food vendors, tailors, horse riders, among others, to tell their stories.
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The CAHP project is expected to help preserve Ghana’s cultural heritage with enhanced national unity while boosting the socio-economic development of the country.
A visual artist, Nabiila, says the project had made him understand the history of the community where he was born and had lived for years.
She said currently, her NGO was renovating three family structures at Osu, for its community library, a gallery, art and murals workshop, cafe and shop and expressed the hope that it would be completed by the end of the year.
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