The Ankobra Gold Route
Common Ghanaian-Dutch Historic and Cultural Heritage in Western Ghana
(July 2011 – December 2012)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of The Netherlands has granted  funding for the project ‘The Ankobra Gold Route: Common Ghanaian-Dutch Historic and Cultural Heritage in Western Ghana ’ to a partnership formed by Ricerca e  Cooperazione, an Italian Development NGO with extensive experience in Ghana (RC), the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB), and the University of Pavia (Italy).

The project focuses of mutual cultural heritage of Ghana and the Netherlands in the Western Region of Ghana. It will be implemented  by the three partners in close collaboration with various stakeholders, namely the Atlantic World and the Dutch Program (AWAD), the Ghana Tourist Authority, the Public Records and Archives Administration Department of Ghana (PRAAD), the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies and the Department of History University of Ghana and the University of Groningen (The Netherlands)

The project has a scientific aspect involving  the identification, restoration  and  conservation of outstanding objects of mutual cultural heritage (documents, artifacts, et cetera) in the Western Region of Ghana, all along with archaeological, historical, and anthropological work on the Dutch  fortified trade lodges Elize Carthago  (17th-18th century) and Fort Ruychaver (17th Cent.), both on the Ankobra River, and the neighboring African settlements.

The other fundamental component focuses on sustainable tourism as an important  contribution to the economic and  cultural development of the areas covered by the project. A cultural tourist route will be created in the Ankobra region with the active involvement of local communities and institutions, linking up with a wider context of sustainable tourism which is already well established in the western coastal districts.

Meaningful results are expected from the project, including  the revitalization of important material relics and memories, and the enhancement of knowledge about the long history of Ghanaian-Dutch interaction which was by no means restricted to trade strategies and European dreams of expansion into the interior, but rather extended to a wide range of human and cultural aspects involving a number of individuals and communities. It is important that this past common history and its legacies are understood by the people of the two countries, particularly by those Ghanaian communities whose ancestors shared in it, as an asset in mutual relations. The project  is also expected to produce tangible gains in terms of social, economic, cultural and environmental development. 

The total cost of the eighteenth months project (July 2011 – Dec. 2012) is 343,900 euro, of which the Government of the Netherlands is providing 148,950 within the framework of the Mutual Cultural Heritage Policy 2009-2012.

The Project and the Ankobra Gold Route excursion are now in the making and at their initial stage; therefore, while they develop, this page will be updated.