A leading New York-based international organization, W.E.B Du Bois Museum Foundation, is set to sign an historic agreement with the government of Ghana.
This was conveyed in a statement released by the Foundation on Sunday.
The agreement is to transform the current Du Bois Memorial Centre and burial site in Accra, Ghana, into a state-of-art museum complex and world-class destination for scholars and heritage tourists.
“The historic agreement will grant authority for the W.E.B Du Bois Museum Foundation to construct a multi-million dollar museum complex to preserve Dr. Du Bois’ legacy over a 50-year period. The complex will be designed by Sir David Adjaye, renowned Ghanaian architect and designer of the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.”
“The Du Bois Memorial Centre in Accra where Dr. Du Bois and his wife, Shirley Graham Du Bois, are buried, opened to the public in 1985, but in recent years had required additional upkeep and maintenance. The Du Bois Museum Complex aims to transform the Center and create a living museum that revives the transformative spirit and vision of Dr. Du Bois for a unified ancestral home for Africans in the diaspora around the world.
“The complex will serve as a historic memorial site where visitors can honor his life and legacy, connect to their cultural and ancestral roots, and serve as an impetus to inspire solidarity between people of African descent,” the statement read.
President Nana Akufo-Addo is to give remarks on the significance of the agreement in strengthening historical, cultural, and economic ties between Ghana and the United States.
While speakers at the event are to include leading political, financial, and cultural leaders from the U.S. and Ghana.
Du Bois, a civil rights pioneer and one of the world’s leading black intellectuals and thinkers, became a citizen of Ghana and resided in the country until his death in 1963.
Du Bois’ vision of a continent of free and independent African nations was a major influence on Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah.
