Sarah Mullally, a senior Church of England leader, visited Accra to break ground on the Church of Ghana's Heritage Anglican Culture Village and Resorts, a project that will commemorate the transatlantic slave trade and serve the African diaspora. She met President John Mahama during the opening leg of a short Africa tour that will also include Cameroon. The visit follows apologies by senior church figures over historic links to slavery and comes as Ghana presses for reparations and international recognition of the trade's severity.
Senior Church of England Leader Sarah Mullally Breaks Ground On Ghana Slave-Trade Heritage Site
Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally is on her first trip to Africa as leader of the world's Anglicans (Filippo MONTEFORTE)
Sarah Mullally, a senior figure in the Church of England, has visited Accra to open work on an Anglican-led cultural heritage project that will interpret the transatlantic slave trade and serve the African diaspora.
The initiative, run by the Church of Ghana and called the Heritage Anglican Culture Village and Resorts, aims to create a pilgrimage destination, educational exhibits and cultural programming for people from the African diaspora and descendants of enslaved people.
Mullally met Ghanaian President John Mahama on Monday during the opening leg of a short Africa tour that will also include stops in Cameroon. President Mahama welcomed her to Ghana and described her presence as a significant moment for church leaders engaging with African communities.
"It was a privilege to be in Ghana, here in Accra, to be able to break the ground on a cultural heritage site that will tell the story of the transatlantic slave trade," Mullally said.
The project is intended both as a place of remembrance and as a means to reconnect diasporic communities with the histories and cultures of West Africa. Church leaders say it will support pilgrimage, education and cultural exchange.
Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has previously apologised for the Church of England's historic links to slavery, calling those links "a source of shame." Ghana has been active in recent years in reconnecting members of the diaspora with the continent: the country has granted citizenship to more than 1,000 people with African heritage and has campaigned internationally for recognition and reparations related to the slave trade.
On Sunday, Mullally preached at a three-hour service at St Joseph the Worker Anglican Church in Accra that was led entirely by women clergy, highlighting the growing role of women in church leadership and worship.
Context
Ghana has pushed the United Nations and other international forums to recognise the transatlantic slave trade as among the gravest crimes in human history and continues to advocate for reparative measures. The new heritage site is part of broader efforts to commemorate the past while building cultural and spiritual links with the global African diaspora.
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