A London-based Anglican charity has committed to providing a £250,000 grant to a reparatory justice initiative in Ghana.
Announced this week, United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) said the grant would support the Anglican Church in Ghana’s heritage Anglican culture village and resorts initiative.
The charity said the long-term project was created to support “spiritual pilgrimage, healing and reconciliation programmes, and community development initiatives”.
“In particular, the project serves those from the African diaspora visiting Ghana and the slave sites for cultural rediscovery and healing to understand the experiences their ancestors underwent during the transatlantic slave trade,” it said.
The grant follows a pledge USPG made in 2023, when it committed to investing £7m over 10-15 years in reparatory justice programmes.
The programmes relate to the treatment of enslaved individuals of African descent within the regime of plantation chattel slavery at the Codrington estates in Barbados, owned by USPG’s predecessor SPG.
SPG also participated in the transatlantic slave trade through the provision of chaplaincy to Cape Coast Castle, known as a “slave castle”, in Ghana from 1751.
Between 1766 and his death in 1816, Philip Quaque – the first African to be ordained in the Church of England – was the castle’s chaplain and employed by SPG to minister to the company that organised and supported the slave trade and to the local African community.
Creating sustainable infrastructure
The first phase of the heritage Anglican culture village and resorts initiative is a 20-room apartment-style hostel in Kaneshie, a suburb in Accra, which will be funded through the £250,000 grant.
USPG said the initiative “forms part of the Anglican Church in Ghana’s long-term strategy to create sustainable infrastructure that preserves cultural heritage”.
The initiative also aligns closely with government-led tourism initiatives and subsequent heritage awareness programmes there.
“These have significantly increased global interest in Ghana as a destination for cultural rediscovery, pilgrimage, and healing, particularly among the African diaspora and faith-based travellers,” USPG said.
‘Historical step’
USPG’s general secretary Duncan Dormor said: “Reparatory justice involves sincere apologies, the acknowledgement of past atrocities and the structures that enabled them, and a commitment to providing redress for the damage inflicted on individuals, groups and nations.
“This initiative recognises the legacies of the slave trade, especially those that affect the deepest aspects of human identity, and seeks the renewal and reconciliation of relationships wounded by this history.”
Cyril Kobina Ben-Smith, primate and metropolitan archbishop of the Church of the Province of West Africa, said: “This initiative marks a historical step by USPG as an agent of change and a champion of reparative Justice.
“USPG is the forerunner in ensuring that the voice of justice and reconciliation echoes once again through this opportunity for healing from the trauma experienced by enslaved persons in the castles in Ghana.”
