Header Photo: Fort Augustaburg Teshie Nungua 1890, The National Archives, UK / Text below: Remo Kurka
Ga-Adangbe Perspectives and Oral Histories -
While much of the world views Ghana’s coastal forts as relics of European trade and conquest, for the Ga-Adangbe people of Teshie, Fort Augustaborg is also a living landmark woven into generations of memory, negotiation, and resilience.
Known locally as "Dani Kpɔ"—meaning Danish House—the fort occupies a unique place in Ga oral tradition. Unlike the violent clashes that marked European encounters in nearby Osu (where the Osu-Dane wars left scars on both sides), the people of Teshie forged a more strategic, transactional relationship with the Danish occupants. Oral histories collected in 2023 by the University of Ghana’s Oral History Project reveal a community that negotiated with skill and subtlety, not submission.
According to accounts from Teshie elders, influential figures like Chief Nii Okai cleverly bartered with the Danes, exchanging fish, salt, and woven goods for European rum and firearms—without ceding sovereignty. These exchanges were less about domination and more about mutual leverage. “They needed our coast; we needed their barrels,” one elder recalled. “But we were never under them.”
Women also played a central role in this historical interplay. Oral narratives highlight female vendors who dominated the fort’s courtyard markets. These were vibrant spaces where Ga kente cloth, handwoven with symbolic patterns, met Danish brassware and ceramics. The fusion wasn’t just material—it was cultural. Teshie became a rare “contact zone” of mutual gain and negotiated identity, even as the broader context remained one of colonial tension.
Anthropologists suggest that part of this unique alliance may have rested on shared fishing rights along the coastline. Rather than strip local communities of resources, the Danes—relying on local expertise for coastal navigation and supply—respected certain communal rights, leading to a relatively stable coexistence at Fort Augustaborg.
These oral histories challenge the simplistic narrative of forts as mere outposts of European domination. In Teshie, the fort was not only a symbol of foreign presence but also a stage for Ga agency, adaptation, and economic strategy. It stands today not just as a ruin of stone, but as a monument of memory—one that continues to shape local identity.
Sources: University of Ghana Oral History Project (2023); Ga-Adangbe Cultural Archives; National Folklore Board