Three Foundations
What Drives Us
The Archive
A growing repository of historical maps, photographs, oral testimonies, and artefact records spanning five centuries of Elmina life. Every document is georeferenced and cross-linked to the interactive town map.
The Lab
An open digital workshop where researchers, students, and community members contribute new findings. Ghost-reveal sliders, 3D scans, and annotated timelines are assembled here before entering the public record.
The Community
Heritage belongs to the people who live it. Museum Elmina works directly with Elmina families, the Anomansa Palace, local fishermen, and the broader Ghanaian diaspora to ensure every voice shapes the archive.
Our Mission
To bridge the silence between colonial archives and the living memory of the Elmina community, building a permanent, open, and evolving record of a place that shaped Atlantic history.
Founder’s Note
For five centuries, Elmina’s history has been written and told almost entirely by outsiders, while our own oral traditions which dates back beyond those five centuries, risk fading away. Museum Elmina was founded to completely flip that narrative.
We are not a traditional, Western-style museum that goes hunting for artefacts to fill an empty space. Instead, we are a living archive. We invite local families to share their own stories, and we amplify those voices to the world. We don’t extract: we listen and we support families in the community to curate their own stories, heritage and memories. If a family ever decides they can no longer care for a piece of their heritage and trusts us to take over, only then do we step in as the next custodians. We do not come to own such pieces of heritage but only hold these in trust for the whole community of Elmina and of generations yet to be born.
Museum Elmina is built on a simple premise: our history belongs to us, and it is time we hold the archive.
Founded 2026 Michael Yao Kunke, Founding Director
The Project Team
The People Behind the Archive
Michael Yao Kunke
Founder & Lead Digital Heritage Architect
Elmina has been written about for five centuries, almost never by Elmina. Michael founded the museum in 2026 to change that, and to record the knowledge its elders hold.
Ebow Dadzie
Principal Cultural Consultant on Oral Traditions
The authoritative guardian of Edinaman oral traditions, the history of the Asafo companies, and royal lineage protocols.
Prof. Anthony Annan-Prah
Principal Archivist & Lead Research Historian
A specialist in Elmina's documented history, responsible for the rigorous archival research and intellectual validation of the museum's content.
David Duron (Nana Ekow Ankama I)
Principal Coordinator for Strategic Partnerships
Managing institutional relationships and international cooperation, facilitating the project's strategic connections with partners and funding agencies.
Assoc. Prof. Emmanuel Akwasi Adu-Ampong
Heritage Tourism & Development Research
Associate Professor in Cultural Geography at Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands. He works at the intersection of cultural geography, critical tourism studies, critical heritage studies and cultural memory studies.
Dr. Daniel Kofi Brako
Field Research & Production Scenography
Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Coast. Dr Brako co-leads the project's long-term direction, applying academic rigour to the museum's aesthetic reconstructions and field research.
Gifty Oduro-Appiah
Researcher & Foreign Policy Analyst
Doctoral Researcher in Visual Anthropology & Ethnomusicology at the University of Hildesheim, Germany. Bringing an interdisciplinary lens to the museum's ethnographic and cultural research.
Richard Ampadu Kofi
Lead, Artistic Programming & Creative Residencies
Directing the museum's artistic programming and creative residency framework, he connects global creators with local heritage to actively reimagine and transform contested histories through contemporary performance and public ritual.
Diplomatic & Patron Recognition
With Gratitude
We express our profound gratitude to the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ghana for their generous support in bringing the Museum Elmina project to life. This partnership reflects a shared commitment to confronting history with honesty, preserving memory, and creating space for meaningful cultural dialogue that connects past and present.
We honour the steadfast leadership of the Edina Traditional Council, under Nana Kodwo Conduah VI, whose vision and resolve have been the driving force behind this initiative. His dedication to preserving the soul of Elmina and safeguarding its heritage for future generations stands as a powerful testament to the enduring spirit of the community.
Get in Touch
Contact & Press
General Enquiries
For questions about the museum project, the digital archive, heritage content, or community partnerships.
museumelmina@gmail.comPress & Media
For media coverage, interview requests, documentary enquiries, and institutional features about Museum Elmina.
museumelmina@gmail.comPartnerships & Research
For institutional partnerships, academic research collaborations, and the Rotterdam Sister City proposal.
museumelmina@gmail.comMuseum Elmina is the result of a collaborative effort between historians, technologists, and the Elmina community to bridge the gap between archival silence and living heritage.
EST. 2026 · ELMINA, GHANA · ELMINA AS A LIVING MUSEUM