When the 15th Annual International Gold and Diamond Conference by Initiatives in Art and Culture (IAC) returns to New York City this July, one name stands out among the list of distinguished speakers: Prof. Ivor Agyeman-Duah, historian, cultural curator, and Director of the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi, Ghana.
His presence highlights the interdisciplinary and inclusive nature of this event, which—under the theme “Eye on the Prize: Towards Continuing Improvement in Practice and Artistry”—focuses on rethinking tradition, responsibility, and the future of craftsmanship and ethics in the industry.
But Prof. Agyeman-Duah is far more than a museum director. He is one of Africa’s foremost intellectuals, a bridge-builder between history and modernity, scholarship and the arts, the Global South and North. As a curator, author of numerous works on African history, economics, and literature, and as an advisor to international organizations, he has earned wide recognition on the global stage. At the Manhyia Palace Museum, the historical seat of the Asante Kingdom, he safeguards and interprets a cultural legacy that is both materially rich and deeply symbolic.
His work is grounded in the belief that cultural heritage and historical responsibility must play central roles in today’s global debates—especially at a time when sustainable sourcing, fair labor practices, and restitution of cultural property are under intense scrutiny. His participation is thus a perfect fit for the IAC Conference, which positions itself not as a trade show but as a forum for critical dialogue and thought leadership. It is a gathering where master artisans meet scientists, multinational companies engage with policy advisors, and voices like Ivor Agyeman-Duah’s bring both depth and vision.
Exclusive interview with Prof. Ivor Agyeman-Duah
Andreas Conrad: What does it mean to you to speak at the IAC Conference in New York as Director of the Manhyia Palace Museum?
Prof. Ivor Agyeman-Duah: It was such a pleasure when the invitation came and not just that but, to give a keynote address. What international platforms do is the opportunity to share views, to alert other industry players, public policy practitioners about happenings elsewhere they would otherwise not be aware of.
It also serves a purpose of knowing and learning from them. New York city is one of the world’s leading centers of international diplomacy and also of cultures – from major gaming designs and digital arts to the brand of theatres of Broadway and the metropolises of museums- not least the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum.
Visiting again and again was therefore a pleasure and the IAC magnet of bringing good peopletogether is commendable.
Andreas Conrad: What role does Ghana’s cultural heritage—especially that of the Asante—play in the global discussion on restitution and justice?
Prof. Ivor Agyeman-Duah: Ghana before it attained its new name in 1957 was known as the Gold Coast because of the abundance of its gold deposits. European fascination with that territory was well-known because of the other natural resources. But in pre-colonial times, the Gold Coast had major states and kingdoms with varying characteristics.
The Asante Kingdom that evolved in the central Gold Coast was however better known because of the Anglo-Asante wars which finally came to a close in 1900. Between 1874 and 1900 and in the course of the wars, many royal regalia were looted by the British forces in the Kingdom’s capital of Kumasi. The first stone building which served as a museum and been influenced by the design of The British Museum was set on fire in the 1870s.
The thousands of functional ornaments and other regalia that were stolen were later sold on the open market in London and other European auction houses. They became great objects of curiosity especially when The British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum acquired some of them.
As visual objects of an African civilization unknown to Europeans, the details of these hand-woven materials Asante eventually became one of the leading African societies to receive attention from European anthropologists, archaeologists and historians.
However, it was not only Asante objects that were looted as it occurred also in the northern and eastern parts of the Gold Coast. And so, these constitute a big basis – of historical inquiry which in the present has become part of the restitution and justice debate.
Andreas Conrad: How do you assess the current approach of international institutions to African cultural and historical artifacts?
Prof. Ivor Agyeman-Duah: There should not be a single approach to many historical episodes. The episodes were geographically different in time and what constituted the basis of restitution and calls for their return. Yoruba culture is different from Ibo culture and the two are definitely different from Ga culture in Accra. Apart from that, they are components of new republics. These components are different from those you will find in the Congo in East Africa- be it the nationalism and cultural spirit that led to the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya or the Aba riots in pre-colonial Nigeria.
One of the difficulties perhaps, intentional or otherwise, of the big powers had been to look at Africa as a single source space. It happened in cultural, political and economic spheres. These do not help and make it difficult to understand the complexity of the Africa of over a billion people with tens of thousands of languages.
Andreas Conrad: What opportunities do you see for greater transparency and sustainability in the jewelry and precious materials industries?
Prof. Ivor Agyeman-Duah: Africa has always had these natural resources- gold, silver, gemstones and other minerals that no other people had. The Congo- Basin has enough rivers and facilities to supply the electricity needs of about half the continent of Africa; there are resources for telecommunications and the materials used for chips in mobile telephony are abundant in the Congo. Unfortunately, these have brought untold hardships and at the same time led to major crisis in unending civil wars in the Congo with implication for the Lake regions and the immediate heighbourhood such as Rwanda, Burundi.
The current crisis had been there for decades and going back to the Cold War as there were contestations for the control of Africa by external forces. It had been this unhappy history not just of geography that blinds thoughts of natural resources and how mutually they could be of interest for the jewelry industry. Again, in Africa, it is tilted against the ethos of global trade and its imbalances; its lack of technology and value addition for big national incomes. And so yes, the opportunities have always been there on the continent but opportunities are not independent of reality.
Andreas Conrad: How can museums and cultural institutions help preserve and revitalize artisanal traditions today?
Prof. Ivor Agyeman-Duah: Museums the world over are undergoing changes; reinterpreting the past in the present; selecting appealing objects and parts of history to interest a big field.
Museums have always been part of institutions at least in the Western World for centuries. What prevailed in Africa prior to colonial rule were mobile museums – without permanent infrastructures- buildings or facilities but through festivals- weekly, yearly at which chiefs in big processions with courtiers, palace officials including linguists, keepers of treasuries of gold, silver and bronze all under big umbrellas, parade for the public.
The postcolonial idea and institution of museums started with ethnographic materials and anthropological interpretation and assessment in the 1960s onwards. These are invariably state orpublic museums to show-case Africa’s ancient glories and its new identity- what some of the leadership- Senghor in Senegal would call Negritude and Nkrumah would call the African Personality.
Today, there is a major phase of this with private and contemporary museums looking at Africa in its other aspects – jewelry of gold, diamond and silver, fashion and other contemporary forms.
And so, the revitalization has come from the ethnographic past in modern media like gaming and design- digital or virtual apps. Ghanaian folklore stories told at the fireside or moonlight setting in rural times of no electricity in the villages of 1900s, have now been animated and children of this generation watch these stories- Ananse stories from Ghana, those of the Yoruba in Nigeria unfold in museums, links to museums and other cultural spaces.
Andreas Conrad: What are your personal hopes for this year’s conference—in terms of impact and exchange?
Prof. Ivor Agyeman-Duah: That some of the wonderful suggestions made by the experts would get to policy makers beyond New York to the industry’s sites in Africa – producers, consumers, state regulators and non-state ones.
Thank you for your time Prof. Ivor Agyeman-Duah.
For more information:
Prof. Ivor Agyeman-Duah
Manhyia-Palast, Kumasi
