Kwame Akoto-Bamfo started by shaping one clay head in 2009. Now thousands are displayed at the Nykyinkyim Museum, each representing an African who was lost to slavery

• Photographs by Keelson Studio

At the end of a sandy path, lined with bamboo trees, lies a clearing with thousands of clay head sculptures. One is of a woman whose hair is half done, another shows a man blindfolded. Some heads have masks signifying royalty. In a small pond are dozens more sculptures, some with shackles round their necks.

Each head placed at the Nykyinkyim Museum in Ghana represents someone who was enslaved and taken from the continent of Africa by Europeans to face a life of struggle, brutality and death.

Clay head sculptures lie in water at the Nykinkyim Museum in Ada, Ghana. Each one represents someone who was enslaved