Brand Elmina

03/06/2026

As part of the Elmina Town of Art project, which is fully supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ghana Richard Kofi teams up with King Bell and his team to pain Richard’s mural on the govenor Nagtglas House. The structure was built in 1862 and is part of the buildings under the Elmina Heritage Buildings.

Music from (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/i-know
License code: W7ONZCOMTEYHOA9Q

02/06/2026

The second phase of the Elmina Town of Asey kicks off today. This is a 360 live stream from Liverpool Street.

01/06/2026

Inside the castle, the door is closed. Governor Harley leans over the desk and signs. Governor Ferguson stands beside him watching and it is Ferguson who speaks first, saying the people of Elmina will not understand. Harley doesn't even look up. They don't need to, he says.

Why did the Dutch leave? By 1872 they were simply done. Their Gold Coast operation had become more burden than business expensive to maintain and increasingly overshadowed by growing British dominance along the coast. The Dutch and the Asante had always been close allies, trading partners who depended on each other, with Elmina serving as the Asante's gateway to the sea. The Dutch knew exactly what they were taking from both Elmina and the Asante by signing this deal, and they signed it anyway. To them it was a practical arrangement between two European powers settling their affairs on a map. To everyone else it was something else entirely.

Across town, in the quiet of the evening, Nana Kobina Gyan I sits with his thoughts. Word had filtered to him about the deal. The Dutch people his city had called allies, fought alongside, built with across 235 years have handed him and his people to the one power they had always stood against, without a word to anyone in Elmina. He has never bowed to anyone, and the thought of starting now has not crossed his mind for a single moment.

Next: the king makes his position clear.
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Something to sit with: The Dutch had attempted to establish a plantation economy in Elmina years earlier, an effort to make the territory pay for itself. It failed. But what if it hadn't? What if that project had succeeded and Elmina had become a genuinely profitable Dutch enterprise? Would Ferguson have been standing in that room at all? Would there even have been a handover? And would Elmina today be a Dutch territory in the heart of present-day Ghana rather than part of the British Gold Coast story? History turned on an economic calculation. It usually does.

And yet the deeper question is this, the Dutch were in Elmina because the Edina people allowed them to be. The castle existed because local rulers permitted it. The trade that made it profitable existed because local people made it so. When Europeans signed agreements amongst themselves over lands and communities they did not own, without a single conversation with the people directly affected, it did not produce peace. It produced exactly the resistance, the conflict and the deaths that followed. The story of Nana Kobina Gyan I is one of the clearest examples of what that looked like from the inside.

31/05/2026

It is early morning in Elmina. The kind of morning where everything feels ordinary, fishermen on the Benya, market women setting up, children already at the water's edge. The city has seen over 400 years of mornings just like this one. The Portuguese came in 1482 and built their castle on this peninsula.

The Dutch came in 1637 and took it. And through all of it, the Edina people stayed, traded, negotiated, and built one of the most prosperous cities on the entire West African coast. Elmina has outlasted everyone who thought they owned it.

But this morning is different. Right now, inside that castle, two governors are sitting across a table from each other. The Dutch one is watching . The British one is signing. And with that signature, 235 years of agreements, relationships, and shared history are being handed over, every fort, every trading post, every promise ever made to the chiefs of Elmina.

Nobody outside that room has been told. Nobody in this city, going about their morning as they always have, has been asked.
There is a king in Elmina. His name is Nana Kobina Gyan I. He does not know what has just happened inside that castle. But when he finds out, he will not be quiet about it.

This is that story. Follow along one panel at a time.

30/05/2026

In 1872 the Dutch sold 235 years of shared history to the British.
In one afternoon. One signature. Without asking a single person in Elmina.

Nana Kobina Gyan I, King of Elmina, born 13 February 1821, refused to accept it. He refused the British flag. He refused the bribe from the British. He refused to sign transfer document.

On 12 March 1873 he stood in the castle his people had lived beside for generations and told the British Governor Harley to his face:
"I am not afraid of your power. You may hang me if you like. I will not sign any paper."

They arrested him without trial. Without charges. They burned his town to the ground. They sent him into exile for 21 years. He refused to return until they called him back as king.

This is Elmina's living memory. Two sacred oaths (Ntam) are still kept in Elmina today in his memory.

As the 13th June approaches marking 153 years the ancestral home of Edinaman was burnt to ashes. For the first time, this story is being told as a comic series accessible to everyone. Young people. Diaspora. Tourists. Ghanaians who were never taught this in school.

Our history. Our heritage. Told in a new way.
Coming Soon.
NANA KOBINA GYAN I: THE KING WHO WOULD NOT BOW
A comic series by Museum Elmina

26/05/2026

The Edina Traditional Council announces the annual Ban on the Lagoon, beginning 1st June 2026. This sacred six-week period of silence, fasting, and purification is observed by the deities and divinities who guide and protect our community, suspending fishing, noise-making, and marketplace activity as Elmina prepares for a season of good harvest, a fruitful fishing year, and communal wellbeing. We ask all residents, visitors, and friends of Elmina to respect and honour this tradition. 🙏🏾

23/05/2026

The Cornelis Nagtglas House is gradually coming alive as young artists work on a series of murals across its historic walls. The designs draw on Adinkra symbols and combine Ghanaian and Dutch colours, reflecting a shared history shaped by long-standing cultural exchange in Elmina.

The work is part of ongoing efforts to refresh and beautify the town ahead of the annual Edina Bakatue festival. As the building takes on new colour and form, it continues to connect past and present through art and public space. Tbis project is made possible Dutch Cultural Heritage Foundation

22/05/2026

Not everyone can buy a flight to Ghana. Not every African child will make the journey to Ghana. Hamile in the Upper West Region of Ghana, is nearly 800 kilometres and close to 17 hours of continuous driving by road to Elmina. For most people it means these spaces remain out of reach.

One of the core pillars of Museum Elmina is changing that. Our 360° virtual tours are built on a simple belief: that the memory and lived experience of this colonial past belongs to everyone, the diaspora scattered across continents, the researcher in Amsterdam, the student in Moroto, Uganda who will never make that journey Ghana.

And there is something else in this that matters to us. To walk through Fort St. Jago on your own terms, from wherever you are, is also a quiet act of reclaiming these spaces. Decolonising heritage does not only happen in policy rooms. Sometimes it happens on a screen, at midnight, thousands of kilometres away.

The full Museum Elmina website, with our complete heritage archive, oral histories, era timeline, and digital experiences is coming soon with support from the Dutch Cultural Heritage Project.

https://kuula.co/share/collection/7MyJT?logo=1&info=0...

Virtual Tour | Perched on the hill overlooking the town, this 360° virtu... | Entrance to Fort St Jago

20/05/2026

The countdown is on, Elmina is gradually preparing for one of its most significant traditional festivals, a celebration deeply rooted in the history, culture and fishing heritage of the people of Edinaman.

From the sound of the asafo drums to the gathering of families, chiefs and visitors, Bakatue is more than a festival. It is a tradition that continues to unite generations.

Get ready for the colours, the processions, the traditions and the spirit of Edinaman.

18/05/2026

Excitement is building as this year’s Edina Bakatue Homecoming edition draws closer. All sons and daughters of Edinaman are invited to return home and join in a celebration that promises unforgettable moments, culture, unity, and the true spirit of Bakatue.