Nana Kofi Acquah
ELMINA
ELMINA is a long-term project I’m working on. It’s the place where I first found love, where my umbilical cord was buried, where my grandmother sang to my little chubby but sickly body about the greatness in my star.
Elmina is where the first slave castle in sub-Saharan Africa was built, and my mother first nursed me 200 metres away from the dungeons where thousands of enslaved Africans had been locked up, many suffocating or starving to death. I took on this project, knowing very well that nothing I do or say today, can undo the injustices of the past, but I believe we owe it to the millions who are trapped today as sex slaves, domestic slaves or suffer any form of slavery to speak up, and shed light not only on the injustices of the past but of the many in our world today.
My name is Nana Kofi Acquah. I was born in Elmina, Ghana; 200 metres from where the first slave castle was built in sub-saharan Africa. I grew up in Tema and Accra, and at age 12, I fell in love with poetry, and painting shortly after. I discovered photography when I worked in advertising. I took off as a commercial photographer but quickly realised I could do more with my photographs than sell soap and sex. Today, I consider myself a voice that’s helping change the stereotypical image of Africa, one story at a time.
