Dr. Joseph Silver, Managing Partner of Silver and Associates, delivered a powerful charge to African storytellers, urging them to share unfiltered stories of Africa’s creative genius through the medium of creative arts. He emphasized that such storytelling would not only display but also teach the world about the uniqueness of the African people. This call to action took place at the third international conference on African arts, hosted by the Pan African Heritage World Museum in partnership with the African University College of Communications (AUCC) in Accra, under the theme “Global Africa: (re)narrating our stories with our creative arts.”
Dr. Silver highlighted the pervasive misrepresentation of Africans, emphasizing the urgent need for the world to unlearn inaccurate narratives and instead learn about the correct history and valuable contributions of the African people to global peace and development. The primary objective of the conference, along with its previous editions, was to lay the groundwork for building the Pan African Heritage Museum.
At the conference, Professor Kofi Anyidoho, an African novelist and poet, presented three narratives exploring the enslavement of African people. These narratives linked the diaspora to continental Africa, demonstrating how creative imagination could redeem brutal historical experiences through the transforming power of migration. The narratives included a two-part video by Paul Medley, originally recorded in 1999 in Accra; a novel titled “Call Me by My Rightful Name” by Osidore Opkewho, a Nigerian author; and a narrative tracing the history of the Atlantic Slave Trade from the Sahel regions of West Africa through the turbulent waters of the Atlantic.
The conference also featured a documentary by Professor Sheila S Walker, a Cultural Anthropologist, Filmmaker, and Writer, shedding light on the lives of African descendants living across the world, particularly in the Americas. With over 200 million African descendants now residing in the Americas, the documentary showcased representations of African culture, music, dance, technology, and games. It featured the mathematical game “wari,” known as “owari” in Ghana, and depicted Afro-Brazilians celebrating the royal court of Kings and Queens of Congo, highlighting how some proudly embrace their African heritage while others may have lost touch with their origins.
The Pan African Heritage Museum, a new museum under construction in Pomadze, Winneba, Ghana, aspires to communicate the true and authentic history, arts, culture, and stories of Africa, employing African voices, tools, and culture.
