Paper short abstract:

Taking the point of departure in a common cultural heritage project between Denmark and Ghana, this paper explores the notion of collaboration in the process of creating a ‘common past’.

Paper long abstract:

Recently, a ruin of a former 19th century Danish plantation in Ghana was excavated, rebuild and turned into a museum. As a so-called 'Common Cultural Heritage Project' the reconstruction and the work on the exhibition were collaboratively led by the Danish National Museum and the University of Legon, Ghana. Besides preserving a physical trace of former Danish engagement on the West African coast, the project's goal was to tell visitors about the 'common past' of Denmark and Ghana - a past neither well known to people in Ghana nor in Denmark.

This paper explores some of the dominant and conflicting ways in which the past has been re-constructed and negotiated in the Common Cultural Heritage Project. One story, based on studies in the Danish archives, archaeological excavations and detailed architectural investigations of the ruin, emphasised the building as a Danish plantation in which local slaves were used as workforce. Another and contrasting story told by the people living around the site, inscribed the building as part of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. By focusing on the negotiation of these stories, I seek to explore the nature of the 'collaborative work' through which knowledge of the past is produced.