By Patrick Ofoe Nudzi
Accra, March 23, GNA – Two digitised entities, Awo Institute and Ahenfie, have been launched to preserve African heritage and oral traditions for future generations.
The Awo Institute focuses on safeguarding African traditions, languages, stories, and local knowledge through research, education, and advocacy.
Ahenfie, inspired by traditional palaces, serves as a cultural space (museum) promoting storytelling and artifact repatriation.
Both entities operate under the Dikan Centre, a nonprofit organization dedicated to nurturing creative African leaders through visual education, critical thinking, cultural understanding, and innovation.
Speaking at the launch in Accra over the weekend, Mr. Paul Ampofo Ninson, Founder and Chief Servant of the Dikan Centre, described the Awo Institute as an ecosystem combining heritage with technology to make African stories accessible.
He expressed a strong passion for preserving African heritage and sharing African stories through modern technology, highlighting the disparity in African studies and collections being more prevalent outside the continent than within.
“In the USA, it saddened my heart that every day I saw vast African collections unavailable here on the continent. The University of Pennsylvania museum has the largest anthropological collections of Africa.
“This imbalance informs my journey to reclaim, preserve our story and reshape our education,” he said.
Mr. Ninson noted that African archives, history, and heritage had been lost due to colonization and improper policies.
His initiative aims to preserve Ghana and Africa’s heritage by implementing policies and building systems.
The Awo Institute has archived 5,000 collections daily for four months, with a target of 10,000 per day. It has digitized books by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and millions of Ghana’s military collections.
“We are going to support the government, ministries, departments, agencies, and musicians on how to preserve their archives. We are also going to support the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and various palaces with oral history,” Mr. Ninson added.
The institute features departments like a digitization lab, audiovisual lab, conservation lab, library, and Awo Lab for digital humanities.
The event attracted prominent personalities, including Mr. Samuel Nartey George, Minister for Communications, Digital Technology and Innovation; Madam Samia Nkrumah; Madam Virginia Palmer, USA Ambassador to Ghana; Gyedu-Blay Ambulley, Highlife legend; and Rocky Dawuni, musician and four-time Grammy nominee.
Mr. Nartey George praised the innovation, emphasizing the Ministry’s vision to digitize 100 billion analogue records within four years.
“We need to look at where as a country we are going to position ourselves in this whole AI ecosystem. Under President Mahama’s leadership, our vision is to use AI to improve national food security, agriculture, education, and healthcare,” he stated.
GNA
KAS