IN-PERSON London Heritages. Section B

Abstract

UNESCO’s Slave Route Project was first launched in 1995 with the sole mission of breaking the silence that shrouds the history of slavery and bringing it into universal memory. The Elmina and Cape Coast Castles, and many forts and castles in Ghana were made UNESCO heritage sites. These places have become sacred for the African diaspora to whom heritage tourism targets as its primary audience. As these sites evoke strong emotional responses to the historical narrativization of slavery from tourists, commerce, and the lives of locals continue a few kilometers away from. These heritage efforts render these sites as palimpsestic, where heritage narratives tend to marginalize local communities that were affected by slavery and are living with its haunting presence even today. How do these sites become political mergers of international heritage initiatives and an economically driven national tourism agenda? When these sites become a compensatory commemoration of the transatlantic slave trade, how do they evoke a new exclusive form of silencing of communities that live with the sites every day? This paper analyses the politics of remembrance through heritage tourism in Ghana, and the implications on the relationship and growing tensions between Ghanaians and the African diaspora during a time of unprecedented return “home” to Africa.