ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts of the key concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book highlights the varied perspectives of Ghana's heritage tourism stakeholders, state officials, tourism planners, tour guides, visitors, 'repatriates', and everyday Ghanaians. Heritage practices typically draw upon selective understandings of history to represent the past. In spite of some African Americans' self-identification as African returnees and rejection of the label tourist, what they engage in when coming to Ghana may incorporate memory work, education, identification, embodiment, as well as entertainment. The tour guide makes a point of saying that African Americans and Ghanaians have different orientations when thinking about the histories of the slave trade and colonialism, corresponding to different feelings experienced by each group. The politics of memory in Ghana's slavery heritage sites play out in contemporary discourses about ongoing racism experienced by blacks, exploitation of Africa by white/Western powers.
