MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND FOREIGN TRAD
2 Port Royal Street, Kington
MEDIA RELEASE
June 3, 2026
Jamaica Presents Symbols of Maroon Heritage to Museum at Cape Coast Castle
Foreign Minister, Sexnator the Honourable Kamina Johnson Smith, has handed over, on behalf of the Government and people of Jamaica, a collection of cultural artefacts and a copy of Jamaica’s Emancipation record to the museum at Cape Coast Castle in Ghana. The handover took place during the Minister’s official visit to Ghana for the Third Session of the Jamaica-Ghana Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation, held in Accra on May 25 and 26.
Cape Coast Castle, located on Ghana’s coast approximately 145 kilometres west of Accra, stands as one of the most recognised sites associated with the trafficking and enslavement of Africans across the Atlantic. Jamaica presented the museum with two enduring instruments of Maroon culture, the Gumbe and the Abeng, along with a copy of the Emancipation record contained in Council Minutes 1B/5/3/24, covering July 1832 to September 1839.
Johnson Smith was joined for the handover by 16 members of Jamaica’s delegation, including Health Minister, Dr. ChristopherJamaica Tufton and Jo-Anne Archibald, Principal Director in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, placing the handover within the wider cultural diplomacy between Jamaica and Ghana and the shared history that continues to connect both peoples. In presenting the items, Johnson Smith said the artefacts connect Jamaica’s story of survival, resistance and freedom with the ancestral ground from which many Africans were forcibly taken.
“Jamaica and Ghana share a bond rooted in heritage, struggle, shared values and vision. At Cape Coast Castle, that bond carries even deeper meaning. To walk through this site is to confront, in a very stark way, the scale of what was taken and the strength of the culture, memory and identity that survived. These items from Jamaica, curated by Minister Grange, speak to what our ancestors endured, what their descendants preserved and what our people continue to build from that history,” Minister Johnson Smith said.
She added that presentation also formed part of the wider work being advanced by Jamaica and Ghana in culture, heritage and reparatory justice. “Ghana’s leadership in securing the UN General Assembly resolution recognising the trafficking and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity is of historic importance. Jamaica was proud to support that effort, because the pursuit of reparatory justice is not only about the past. It is about truth, memory, dignity and the future we owe to generations to come. These artefacts serve as symbols of Jamaica’s resolve to repair the damage and to secure reparatory justice, which is being led by Minister Grange. The presentation of the Gumbe, the Abeng and the Emancipation record therefore stand as more than a museum handover. It is an act of remembrance, cultural diplomacy and reconnection between two peoples bound by ancestry, history and the continuing pursuit of justice”, the Foreign Minister said.
The Gumbe is a square-frame drum created by Jamaican Maroons in the 18th century. It is traditionally made from cedar, pine or mahogany, covered with female goat skin and played with the palms and fingers, it remains central to Maroon cultural expression. The drum also travelled with the Maroons to Sierra Leone in 1800, where it continues to be used. Meanwhile, the Abeng, made from a cow’s horn, was used by the Jamaican Maroons to send coded messages across long distances. It warned of threats, announced births and deaths, and helped communities organise and evade capture. Today, it is mainly sounded in ceremonies and for announcements. The word “abeng” descends from Akan languages of Ghana, giving its presentation at Cape Coast added meaning.
