Mission

Si Hene — “Enstoolment” in Twi — began in 2020 as an Instagram archive, born from founder Rita Mawuena Benissan’s search for images of Ghana’s royal umbrellas, stools and chieftaincy that she simply could not find. What started as a way to gather scattered pictures of a vanishing history grew into a foundation dedicated to archiving and preserving Ghana’s culture.

Six years on, our work reaches far beyond chieftaincy. The archive now holds everyday life — markets, families, fashion, faith and work — and our programmes span photography, oral history, restitution, community archiving and education, connecting Ghana’s story to the wider African continent and its diaspora.

For us, culture is not something kept behind glass. It is living — carried in how people dress, gather, speak, worship, build and remember. Culture is identity and belonging; it is how a community knows where it comes from and imagines where it is going. Si Hene exists to hold that culture with care, so that Ghana’s heritage — royal and everyday alike — stays present, shared and alive for the generations still to come.

The Cultural Centre is built as a space that asks questions — far beyond the archive. What is culture, and who gets to define it? What does it mean to hold another’s memory, and to care for the items that carry it? We would rather open these questions of culture, memory and belonging with our community than answer them alone.

Whatever you are looking for — a photograph, a record, a thread of family history, or simply a place to think — we can’t wait to be the foundational space for your research.