Cardinal Peter Poreku Dery Picture Collections

One Day Workshop
Date: 10th April, 2010
Place: Wa Pastoral Institute
Registration Fee: Two Ghana Cedis

Abstract
Cardinal Peter Porekuu Dery Picture Collections is part of an action research study focusing on the cultural history, individual as well as social biographies of religious and cultural life in Northern Ghana. It aims to focus particularly on the dynamic interchange and tensions between religion, culture, the economy and society as they evolved since the time of slave raiding in the mid 19th century and the subsequent planting of Christianity in Northern Ghana. The main objective is to identify and document the tangible and intangible archival institutions and materials of the societies of Northern Ghana in order to build a comprehensive and integral heritage movement of cultural and philosophical discourses within the global context of religious and social formations and transformations.
As an action research project, the focused activities are based on three axes, namely, the active collection and conservation of local heritage of all kinds including materials now found outside Ghana, the provision of scholarly and scientific examination of the heritage as knowledge content and the fostering of public awareness of the knowledge concerns embedded in the heritage examined. The collection and documentation of the pictures of Cardinal Porekuu Dery constitute a first step towards achieving some of these objectives. The workshop will initiate the examination of the Picture Collection in view to foster more public awareness of their knowledge value content.

Themes of the Workshop
1. Individual biographies: Techniques and methods of collection and documentation
2. The faces behind the camera: Identifying the sources and objectives of Dery pictures
3. The faces in front of the camera: Identifying historical figures and processes in Dery Pictures
4. Cultural exposition and the role of archives, particularly Cardinal Dery archives in development.

Contacts: Alexis.Tengan@yucom.be

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