Huzeima Mahamadu is a Ghanaian PhD candidate at the Australian National University, Australia. Her PhD research, the Politics of Difficult Heritage in Museums: Slavery History in Ghana, explores how slavery history in Ghana is being interpreted and communicated in museums and how diverse audiences engage with the narratives provided by museum educators. 

Huzeima has over a decade of experience in development, education, and research. Her educational background in planning, economic development, and the social sciences has shaped her worldview and research interests. Huzeima is committed to making research accessible to the general public and, therefore, shares updates with her audience on her blog, Mahcap. She is a recipient of the Cherry Gertzel Research Fund award and serves as AFSAAP Postgraduate student representative and social media liaison. 

Huzeima is in Ghana for data collection, engaging with local Ghanaians, the African diaspora, and other visitors at Ghana’s slavery heritage museums. Her field experiences so far show that understanding your history and heritage, both good and bad, is empowering and liberating. Her interactions with visitors show that the experiences of the dungeons, condemned cells, and the door of no return not only ignite negative emotions such as anger, frustration, sadness, and shame. It also ignites positive emotions of courage, resilience, strength, and hope in both local and African diaspora visitors.  For the African diaspora, the pain and anger will continue to be there as they take a minute to reflect that they would not have existed if their ancestors did not have the strength to resist, the courage to survive and hope for a better tomorrow. Importantly, the African diaspora feels at peace and at home in Ghana, reminding us that sometimes, what matters most in life is the peace of mind to be whoever you want to be without prejudice. 

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