A Journey Along Ghana’s Coast

The wooden platform beneath me shuddered, summoning me from my sleep. Under a moonlit sky, I crept outside the homestay hut and onto the rickety boardwalk. Across the water, I could make out the silhouettes of villagers gathered together. Women wailed and chanted while a plume of smoke billowed amongst them, and a child wrapped in a blanket was passed from one person to the next.

Curious, I walked towards the gathering and quietly asked someone what was happening. I was told that one of the village children had been possessed by an evil spirit. A short while later, a man rushed over and asked if I could help. Not knowing what to do or say, I suggested taking the child to hospital to be tested for malaria.

“No, no,” he replied. “We need to take out the evil spirit.”

The ritual continued long into the night. The following morning, I ran into one of the child’s relatives and asked how he was doing.

“He’s much better,” the man said with a huge smile of relief. “What was wrong with him?” I asked. “Malaria!”

The encounter took place in Nzulezu, a tiny village built entirely on stilts above Lake Tadane in Ghana’s Western Region. Accessible only by canoe, the village was nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000 and remains one of the most unusual settlements I have encountered anywhere in the world.

Nzulezu was just one of many communities I visited along Ghana’s coast. From fishing villages and historic ports to remote beaches and bustling markets, each place revealed a different facet of a coastline shaped by the ocean, by history and above all by the people who call it home.

Between 2008 and 2014, I visited Ghana on several occasions while volunteering with a community-based organisation supporting vulnerable people living with HIV/AIDS in the Ashanti Region. During my time there, I explored much of the country’s coastline by tro-tro, canoe and on foot, sometimes walking for days along untouched beaches from one village to the next.

Along the way, I met fishermen hauling brightly painted canoes onto the sand, traders selling their catch in bustling harbours, and families living in communities accessible only by water. Everywhere I travelled, the coastline seemed to tell stories of migration, trade, faith and survival, all shaped by the Atlantic Ocean and the generations of people who have lived beside it.

Some of the most moving places I visited were the former slave forts at Cape Coast and Elmina. Standing within their stone walls, the weight of history feels almost tangible. In the dark, airless dungeons where enslaved Africans were once imprisoned before being forced onto ships bound for the Americas, the scale of human suffering feels almost unimaginable. Walking through Cape Coast Castle’s infamous Door of No Return, the final threshold crossed by those who would never again see their homeland, was one of the most haunting experiences of my time in Ghana.

Those sites feel particularly significant today. More than two centuries after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, its legacy continues to shape lives and identities around the world. In March 2026, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution, championed by Ghana, recognising the transatlantic slave trade and the enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity. The resolution called for reparatory justice and renewed international attention on a history whose consequences are still felt today.

Stretching for more than 500 kilometres along the Gulf of Guinea, Ghana’s Atlantic coastline links bustling cities, historic trading ports, vibrant fishing communities and remote villages. Castles and forts dot the landscape, serving as reminders of the region’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, while colourful fishing canoes line palm-fringed beaches beneath the tropical sun.

The photographs in this collection were made over multiple visits to Ghana and document everyday life as it unfolded along the coast. Together, they offer a glimpse into a coastline shaped by the ocean, by history and above all by the people who call it home.