Archiving History Of Ghana: Case Study Of Forts And Castles

As part of Creative Commons Open Culture Platform Activity Fund 2023, we are fortunate to have been given the opportunity to work on a project that seeks to document some aspects of Ghana’s culture and heritage.

Prior to Ghana’s independence in 1957 the country was colonized by a number of European countries like the Portuguese, Danish, British and others.

Most of them built forts and castles that are still existent in today’s Ghana.

Unfortunately, stories about the history of these structures are not well digitally represented on the internet, specifically Wikimedia Commons. It is important that our history and heritage is preserved and documented well enough for the next generation to be connected to their roots.

Forts such as Fort Ruychaver, Fort Saint Anthony and Fort Elize Carthago have no images attached to their Wikipedia articles and this is because there are no images of these forts on Wikimedia Commons either.

Fortunately with the current age of Open and Creative Commons, we have the opportunity to capture all these historical monuments with the right use of licensing.

Most of these forts and castles were the final destinations of our forefathers who were taken ashore.

This project seeks to archive the stories of Ghana’s heritage through capturing some images of forts and castles with historical background worth archiving on Wikimedia Commons with use of Creative Commons licensing.

By Francis Quasie