Outpost of Empire: Kormantine, the slave trade, and England’s first outpost in Africa

FAIN: RFW-286698-22

Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY 13244-0001)
Christopher Raymond DeCorse (Project Director: September 2021 to present)

Excavation and non-invasive surveys of the earliest English colonial outpost in Africa, Kormantine Fort (1631-1665), located in modern-day Ghana (36 months).

Established in 1631, Kormantine fort in coastal Ghana was England’s first African outpost. Although it was the English African headquarters for less than three decades, the small outpost nevertheless played a key role in African-English economic and cultural interactions, as well as the transshipment of enslaved Africans to the developing English colonies in the Americas. Recognized as UNESCO World Heritage site in 1972, today the site is one of the major forts that stands as a memorial to the millions of Africans forcibly taken to the Americas. Yet, this historic site is in peril due lack of maintenance and stabilization work, development, and lack of a site management plan. The proposed NEH project is uniquely suited to investigate this early landmark of England’s overseas empire, and to play a key role in its preservation and interpretation, resonating with NEH’s Areas of Interest in A More Perfect Union and Protecting our Cultural Heritage.