Ampia Ajumako Ethnology Museum

A museum, focused on rural life, has been opened at Ampia-Ajumako in the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District in the Central Region of Ghana. The museum is set in the indigenous compound house.

Ampia Ajumako is a farming community . Major farm products include cocoa and oil palm as the main cash crops, and corn, yams, cassava, plantain, and vegetables as food crops. The town is noted for palm oil and gari production.

The museum will help educate and encourage visitors to learn about the past history and cultural values of the Akan of the district. Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, the famous Abolitionist, was born in this district.

The museum would help teach how tradition could be refined to encompass all other sectors of the society to create an enabling environment for the realization of a holistic cultural set up in the country.

Some of the items on display at the Museum include typical household items in a rural setting, woodcarvings, embodiments of Ghanaians history and pictorial representations of some past leaders of the Methodist church, some prominent Ghanaian chiefs, traditional religious artifacts, and items pertaining to cottage industries. The museum also conducts agro-tours of oil palm and cocoa farms. Visitors are also conducted around cottage industries such as gari processing, palm oil processing and woodcarving. An overnight stay gives visitors the opportunity to witness a storytelling session in the evening. A tour of the town includes a stop at the Posuban—the military post of the local Asafo company and a stop at the palace of the local chief.

The museum has been set up by the retired renowned Methodist Superintendent, RT. Rev. Joseph Yedu Bannerman, who hails from the town. The Museum will serve as a learning centre for tourists and researchers from both Ghana and elsewhere in order to expand their knowledge about Ghanaian rich material culture.

The museum is set in an area rich in diverse attractions for tourism. These attractions include the woodcarving centres at Kokoben, Asaasan, and Owane; posuban at Ampia Ajumako, Owane, Techiman, Enyan Denkyira, and Mankesim; the Catholic Church building at Besease; and the Dwarf Sanctuary at Bobikuma. The Castles at Cape Coast and Elmina are about 30 miles away to the west.

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