Si Hene · Programs 2026

Events & Programs

Talks, workshops and sessions at Si Hene are open to everyone. Come to dance, drum, listen and learn with us, and look back on the gatherings, workshops and fellowships that have shaped our work.

Coming up

November 2026

11Nov 2026Wednesday

Talk · Book launchOpen to all

Guest Lecture: Barnaby Phillips

Britain and the Asante Treasure

Si Hene Foundation welcomes Barnaby Phillips for a guest lecture and book launch of The African Kingdom of Gold: Britain and the Asante Treasure. A historian and award-winning journalist, Phillips reported for the BBC and Al Jazeera English for 27 years, working across several African countries.

His book traces Britain’s wars with the Asante alongside the history of plundered Asante relics. It offers an opportunity to learn about the encounters behind these objects and to reflect on imperial ambition, African resistance, and the histories that cultural treasures carry.

The discussion will be moderated by Christopher Armoh.

Wednesday, 11 November 2026, at 6:00 pm Si Hene Foundation, 128 Ring Road East, Accra

Please RSVP online or contact info@sihene.com.

Guest lecture & book launch

6:00 PM

Si Hene Foundation, Accra

Free. Booking required.

Past programs

2026

23 March – 5 August

ClosedFellowship

Custodians of Culture Fellowship: The Community Archivist

128 Ring Rd E, Accra

Our pilot fellowship. Five fellows received foundational training in ethical preservation: documenting, digitising and caring for at-risk cultural materials, with community consent placed before access. The program included field visits to the J.H. Nketia Archives, the George Padmore Research Library, PRAAD and Nkyinkyim Museum.

Read about the fellowship →

2025

Nov 27–30

PastWorkshop · Reading Room

Reading Room: Ghana in Portrait

128 Ring Rd E, Accra

Over four days, participants spent time with works by Paul Strand, James Barnor, Willis Bell and Basil Davidson. Si Hene founder Rita Mawuena Benissan, curator Damarice Amao and Cécile Nedelec of Les Rencontres d'Arles led a guided conversation in which participants brought their own eye and memory to images that, for a long time, were made without us in the room.

2024

June 7–9

PastWorkshop · Community

Vanishing Past: A Community Archiving Workshop

Jamestown Café, Accra

Over three days at Jamestown Café on High Street, Accra, participants from across the city came together to document at-risk cultural materials, oral histories and neighbourhood memory. The Vanishing Past was Si Hene's first large-scale public archiving workshop, and it laid the groundwork for the Custodians of Culture Fellowship.

2023

Aug 22–24

PastConvening · Institutional

Open Society Foundations: Global Convening on the Restitution of African Heritage

Accra, Ghana

Si Hene founder Rita Mawuena Benissan directed the Open Society Foundations' Global Convening for the Restitution of African Heritage. The gathering brought together institutions, governments and cultural practitioners from across Africa and the diaspora to address the return of African cultural objects held in Western collections.