A book on the heritage of the Kpando people of the Volta Region has been launched with a call on Africans to unearth buried portions of their history to complete the African story.

The book, titled, “Unearthing Revelations of Domination and Resilience,” exposes the buried past of the Akpini people of Kpando and their ability to integrate the cultures they encountered into a multivocal culture which has ultimately defined an enviable heritage.

In an interview on the sidelines of the launch at the Forecourt of the Department of Archeology and Heritage Studies, University of Ghana, the author of the book said, “Without knowledge of our history we are doomed, and in this era of globalization, we are sometimes made to study other people’s histories rather than ours.”

Dr Wazi Apoh, therefore, hoped that such a process of documenting Ghanaian Oral History would rejuvenate cultural education and unearth Ghana’s tourism heritage and make it a viable industry.

He indicated that through the book, he was exposing the sense of unity that had come to characterize the heritage of the Akpini people of Kpando.

“It’s about unity; we have Akan heritage, we have German and British connections; we are resilient people, we have integrated all these knowledge to become who we are today as Kpando people. This is the message, that through unity, through the integration of different cultures and ideas, we are able to innovate and move on,” Dr Apoh added.

He told of how foreign missionary and colonial officials took many Akpini artefacts out of the Kpando area, “Because they demonized the artefacts, but those objects ended up in their archives and museums in Europe.

A former Chief of Staff of the Republic of Ghana, Prosper Bani, in his remarks before the launch, said the Author’s exposition on the request of Akpini Chiefs for the return of stolen Akpini Royal legacies from German Museums equally revealed one way of undoing the lingering domination of Akpini heritage.

Mr Bani, who was also a former Minister of the Interior, said this search cut across the whole Ghana where “history and inheritance and cultural artefacts were dear to our people, and until we were able to restore those objects, we would still be in research of our true history.”

Professor Kodzo Gavua of the Department of Archeology and Heritage Studies,  University of Ghana, reviewing the book, said although the book focused on Kpando, it presented information that reflected other people’s history of cross-cultural interactions in Ghana and beyond.

“It is a book whose story affects all of us across the world with particular regard to the Kpando area. It has the potential to deepen public understanding of how Kpando was formed and how she emerged as an identifiable community of people in Ghana,” Prof. Gavua said.

The Academic spelt out how the book revealed the character of German and British imperialist and colonial adventures in Togoland and the factors that engendered these adventures.

“The book told of how the German and British presence impacted the culture of the Kpando people in particular and the people of the former Togoland Colony in general, and how the Akpini people endured the adventures of the colonialists,” the Professor said.

The copies of the book are available at the University of Ghana Bookstore, Kingdom Books, EPP Books, Dept. of Archeology and Heritage Studies, UG as well as at the Rely on God Bookstore at Kpando.