Slavery and its Legacy in Ghana and the Diaspora, edited by Rebecca Shumway and Trevor R. Getz, is a detailed examination of slavery and its legacy in Ghana and the diaspora. Both scholars are specialists with profound knowledge of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery, and their decision to bring together writings from Ghanaian and non-Ghanaian experts on slavery, African history, and diaspora is highly commendable. Given that intellectual exchange between Africans and non-Africans rarely occurs in scholarly publications as much as it should, these essays are refreshingly varied and instructive. The ten chapters are presented in thematic order, and the editors’ introduction effectively frames the volume’s contents.

In Part 1, “Ghana and the Transatlantic Slave Trade before Colonial Rule,” Shumway’s synthesis of current scholarship and its future directions provides an apt starting point for the essays that follow. Ntewusu’s excellent analysis, drawing on objects, texts, and oral narratives, underscores the advantages of a multiple-lines-of-evidence approach. Examining material culture associated with slavery, he describes how the enslaved and their “liberators” employed artifacts in the past, additionally touching on the centrality of artifacts to contemporary socio-cultural and political organization in Mamprugu. Rucker crafts a theoretically sophisticated and intellectually stimulating discussion of ritual practice and technologies amongst Gold Coast diasporans. In flowing prose, he explains how, by way of access to the ancestral realm through the ingestion of grave dirt and consequently, spiritual transmigration, the enslaved articulated a “unique, non-liberal, and non-Western brand of abolitionism.” Shumway’s inspiring critical assessment of Fante/Gold Coast agency analyzes nineteenth-century Fante elite political ideology vis-à-vis transatlantic moral anti-slavery and abolitionist discourse. As she perceptively observes, Fante merchants and political elites would have been cognizant of discourse and developments taking place elsewhere throughout the Atlantic World.

In Part 2, “Slavery and Abolition Under British Colonial Rule,” Getz presents a nuanced and fascinating investigation of British anti-slavery courts along with less formal processes, whereby wives and enslaved women fashioned new, creative strategies to resolve disputes and to improve their status and living conditions. The parish reports of Ghanaian pastor Theophilus Opoku from the southeastern Gold Coast are the focus of an interesting reflexive piece by Jenkins. Runkel’s careful and thoughtful study of the African abolitionist Francis P. Fearon details the connections between emancipation and the struggle for equality and political participation in the face of racist colonial imaginations and the unwillingness of British colonial authorities to confront the issue of slavery on a large scale.

In Part 3, “Memory, Heritage, and the Legacy of Slavery,” Donkoh provides a sensitive portrayal of slavery, slave trade heritage, and its communities of connection, including, but not confined to, Ghanaians and African diasporans. Her emphasis on successful collaborative approaches to commemorating this shared heritage makes an important contribution to a well-established body of work that often highlights the contested nature of interpretations at heritage sites. Perbi’s insightful approach to indigenous slavery in postcolonial written and oral narratives is illustrative of the pioneering, cutting-edge scholarship for which she is renowned. She demonstrates her mastery of the subject through close examination of how the legacy of indigenous slavery manifests in traditional political office, land tenure, inheritance, and the social realm. Holsey fashions a novel, provocative, and compelling discursus of the slave trade in contemporary political discourse. Her examination of U.S. and Ghanaian political approaches highlights the intersection between slave trade history and legacies and present-day international politics, thereby cleverly illustrating the complicated entanglement between American, African, and African diasporic leaders and intellectuals as they confront contemporary global inequalities.

Kea’s valuable afterword situates the essays within a wider theoretical, methodological, and chronological framework. He notes precisely how this volume recovers the forgotten, silenced, and/or marginalized aspects of Gold Coast/Ghanaian history, thereby creating a revisionist, decolonized Gold Coast/Ghanaian historiography, which firmly places Africa center stage in world history.

Overall, several essays in this volume break new conceptual ground regarding resistance, abolitionism, and emancipation. Indubitably, these scholars engage with, and speak to, the fields of history, anthropology, material culture, heritage, tourism, and memory studies. The essays draw upon a wide selection of visual, material, textual, and oral sources while proposing directions for further study. Readers will want to consult these experts’ other works. While the book adopts a regional perspective, the essays are equally informative for scholars studying similar issues in other parts of the globe. One critical observation is that the editors might have encouraged deeper development of some of the essays and made greater use of illustrations where these would not offend justifiable sensitivities, such as depictions of the formerly enslaved’s descendants. Perchance, this was a consequence of the publisher’s decision. In summary, this book represents an admirable contribution to the fields of Ghana Studies, slave trade and slavery, and Atlantic and African Studies.