Bisa Aberwa Museum

It’s a little challenging when you are asked to escort two minibus-full of cruise-ship passengers on a shore excursion to a place you have never been to, and they have never heard of. Thankfully the expedition leader had a lot of confidence in me, perhaps as she was aware of my academic background in the history of Africa and the African diaspora.

This museum is tucked away among private homes, with lush tropical gardens at Nkontompo halfway between the harbours of Sekondi and Takoradi in Southwest Ghana.

Bisa Aberwa Museum was curated by Kwaw Ansah, a filmmaker and the founder CEO of TV Africa. He started the collection some 40 years ago and it is now one of the largest private collections in Africa that represents the African story, sprawling over three floors.

But to say “the African story” is very much an understatement. This wonderful collections of over 2000 artworks, photographs and ethnographic artefacts from all over the continent is very much an African take on Africa. From the ancient oral traditions and built structures of Egypt, through the slavery, resistance and freedom.

For the visitors from North America, Europe and Australia, it was the gallery dealing with the Pan-Africanists in and beyond Africa, such as those leading the Civil Rights movement that gathered the most interest. Many North Americans did not realise that the resistance movement in the United States had its parallels in colonia Africa. They acknowledged that their “Black History Month” was nationally focused and therefore its relevance to the formation of modern Africa was missing.

The cruise passengers that I accompanied where delighted with the guides and their narratives, and the guides were happy to answer questions. A guided visit takes about one hour. There are stairs and no elevators.

Local rates: Adults 50gh, Primary School students 5gh, Junior High/Secondary School students 10gh.

Clifford Pereira FRGS

Hailing from Mombasa, Kenya. Cliff's research interests began in 1982 when he first travelled Asia following the routes of the epic voyages of the Fifteenth century Chinese admiral Zheng He. He later graduated with a BA(Hons) in Geography with Asian Studies (Ulster University). After a career in tourism Cliff became a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). He returned to historical research in 2001 on a variety of themes leading to an exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society on the Bombay Africans (2007) and is regarded as the world specialist on the subject. Cliff was Honorary Research Assistant to Royal Holloway's Geography Department (2011-2014) and Visiting Research Assistant to Dalian Maritime University, China (2011-2015). Cliff was researcher-curator on the Bait-Jelmood Museum, Qatar (2013-2016) and research-curator for the National Museum of Qatar, specialising in the Portuguese presence in the Indian Ocean (2016-2018). Cliff was Visiting Research Assistant at the University of Hong Kong (2016-2023). He completed a MA(Res) on the History of Africa and the African Diaspora (University of Chichester) with distinction in 2021. He is presently distance-working on the African collection of the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC Vancouver, Canada and continues to research and consult for a number of UK heritage institutions. He describes himself as a historical geographer and has been a speaker on various subjects in China, Malaysia, Canada, USA, South Africa, Italy, the UK and on the cruise liners Silversea and Swan Hellenic. He has numerous papers and chapters in publications around the world.