Agency overview | |
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Formed | 5 March 1957 |
Jurisdiction | Ghana |
Website | https://www.ghanamuseums.org/ |
The Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) is the government organisation responsible for the preservation of the material cultural heritage of Ghana. It was founded on 5 March 1957, [1] soon after Ghana became independent, by a merger of the National Museum and the Monuments and Relics Commission by Ordinance 20. [2]
The origins of the GMMB can be traced back to the establishment of an ethnographic museum at Achimota College (now the Achimota School) in 1929. Following the establishment of the University of Ghana (then known as the University of the Gold Coast) in 1948, the museum was transferred to the university's archaeology department.
In 1952, the British colonial government established an "Interim Council of the National Museum of the Gold Coast". The council later merged with the Monuments and Relics Commission to create the modern GMMB. [3]
Cape Coast Castle is one of about forty "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa by European traders. It was originally a Portuguese "feitoria" or trading post, established in 1555, which was named Cabo Corso.
The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It is the oldest public university in Ghana.
Achimota School, formerly Prince of Wales College and School at Achimota, later Achimota College, now nicknamed Motown, is a co-educational boarding school located at Achimota in Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana. The school was founded in 1924 by Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, Dr. James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey and the Rev. Alec Garden Fraser. It was formally opened in 1927 by Sir Frederick Guggisberg, then Governor of the British Gold Coast colony. Achimota, modelled on the British public school system, was the first mixed-gender school to be established on the Gold Coast.
The National Museum, also known as the National Museum of Ghana, is a museum located in Accra, Ghana. Established in 1957, it is the largest and oldest of the six museums under the administration of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB). The museum closed in 2015 for restoration until eventually reopening in 2022.
Articles related to Ghana include:
Lawrence Henry Yaw Ofosu-Appiah was a Ghanaian academic who taught classics at the University of Ghana and was subsequently Director of the Encyclopedia Africana.
Philip Comi Gbeho was a Ghanaian musician, composer and teacher. He is best known for his composition of the Ghana National Anthem. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Arts Council of Ghana and was a Director of Music and conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Ghana.
Emmanuel Evans-AnfomFRCSEd FICS FAAS FWACS was a Ghanaian physician, scholar, university administrator, and public servant who served as the second Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology from 1967 to 1973.
The monuments list is taken from the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, according to their description "legal custodian of Ghana's material cultural heritage " GMMB classifies the monuments:
Timothy Insoll is a British archaeologist and Africanist and Islamic Studies scholar. Since 2016 he has been Al-Qasimi Professor of African and Islamic Archaeology at the University of Exeter. He is also founder and director of the Centre for Islamic Archaeology. Previously he was at the Department of Archaeology at the University of Manchester (1999–2016).
Susan Barbara Gyankorama Ofori-Atta, also de Graft-Johnson, was a Ghanaian medical doctor who was the first female doctor on the Gold Coast. She was the first Ghanaian woman and fourth West African woman to earn a university degree. Ofori-Atta was also the third West African woman to become a physician after the Nigerians Agnes Yewande Savage (1929) and Elizabeth Abimbola Awoliyi (1938). In 1933, Sierra Leonean political activist and higher education pioneer, Edna Elliot-Horton became the second West African woman university graduate and the first to earn a bachelor's degree in the liberal arts. Eventually Ofori-Atta became a medical officer-in-charge at the Kumasi Hospital, and later, she assumed in charge of the Princess Louise Hospital for Women. Her contemporary was Matilda J. Clerk, the second Ghanaian woman and fourth West African woman to become a physician, who was also educated at Achimota and Edinburgh. Ofori-Atta was made an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Ghana for her work on malnutrition in children, and received the Royal Cross from Pope John Paul II when he visited Ghana in 1980, in recognition of her offering of free medical services at her clinic. She helped to establish the Women's Society for Public Affairs and was a Foundation Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her achievements were a symbol of inspiration to aspiring women physicians in Ghana.
Annie Ruth Jiagge, , also known as Annie Baëta Jiagge, was a Ghanaian lawyer, judge and women's rights activist. She was the first woman in Ghana and the Commonwealth of Nations to become a judge. She was a principal drafter of the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and a co-founder of the organisation that became Women's World Banking.
Elizabeth Frances Baaba Sey was the first female graduate of the University of Ghana. After attending the Achimota Secondary School in Accra, she was admitted to what was then the University College of the Gold Coast, now University of Ghana, in 1950 and graduated with a BA degree in 1953.
Christian Gonçalves Kwami Baëta was a Ghanaian academic and a Presbyterian minister who served as the Synod Clerk of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast from 1945 to 1949. He was among a number of prominent individuals, corporate organisations and civil society groups that were instrumental in the establishment of the University of Ghana, Legon in 1948.
Bashiru Kwaw-Swanzy was a Ghanaian politician, who served as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in the First Republic. Born Benard Edward Kwaw-Swanzy, he was also known as Bartholomew Ebassuah Kwaw-Swanzy and later as Alhaji Bashiru Kwaw-Swanzy.
Oklemekuku, Nene Azzu Mate Kole II,, known in private life as Frederick Lawer Mate Kole was a Ghanaian paramount chief and statesman who served as the fourth monarch or king, Konor of the Manya Krobo Traditional Area in southeastern Ghana and reigned from 1939 to 1990.
William Jones Varley, FSA (1904–1976) was a British geographer and archaeologist, particularly known for his excavations of English Iron Age hillforts, including Maiden Castle and Eddisbury hillfort in Cheshire, Old Oswestry hillfort in Shropshire, and Castle Hill in West Yorkshire. He was also a pioneer of geographical research and education in colonial Ghana where he worked from 1947 to 1956, and was involved in historical conservation there.
Dr. Kofi George Konuah was a Ghanaian educationist and statesman who served as Chairman of the Public Services Commission of Ghana from 1962 to 1970 and Chairman of the Audit Service Board from 1970 to 1974. As an educationist, he is known for being a co-founder and the first principal of Accra Academy, an all-boys secondary school located in Accra.
Daniel Ahmling Chapman Nyaho was a Ghanaian statesman, diplomat and academic. He was the first African appointee at the United Nations. He served as the Secretary to the cabinet in the first Convention People's Party government which shared the colony's administration with the colonial government. He also served as Ghana's ambassador to the United States of America and Ghana's permanent representative to the United Nations. In 1958, he became the first Ghanaian headmaster of Achimota College.
Allotei Kobina Konuah was a Ghanaian educationist, sportsman and city administrator. He was executive chairman of Accra City Council from Februabry 1979 until his death in October 1979. Before this, he was headmaster of Accra Academy from 1953 to 1967. He was team manager for Ghana at the 1952 Summer Olympics and the 1954 Commonwealth Games, which marked the first appearances at both competitions for Ghana and the only appearances as a British colony.