Image created by Yaw Pare

Diaspora | Updated May 5, 2025

Remembering Through the Lens: Yaw Pare’s “Remnants of a Haunted Past”

In an era where history often competes with modern distractions for attention, the work of Ghanaian photographer Yaw Pare emerges as an essential bridge between the past and present. Through his powerful book, Remnants of a Haunted Past: Forts and Castles of Ghana, Pare invites Africans and the diaspora to confront the haunting legacy of the transatlantic slave trade and to seek healing through remembrance.

Yaw Pare’s journey into this chapter of history is deeply personal. After spending nearly 16 years abroad, Pare returned to Ghana in 2010, determined to document the country’s rich cultural and historical heritage. What he found was not just relics of the past, but living monuments — the forts and castles along Ghana’s coast — that continue to whisper the stories of millions who suffered unimaginable horrors.

Through his lens, Pare captures these UNESCO World Heritage Sites not as static ruins, but as living testaments to endurance, trauma, and resilience. Remnants of a Haunted Past does not merely photograph walls and corridors; it exposes the grandeur and the decay, the silence and the echoes of an era that shaped the very foundations of the African and African-descended experience.

Image created by Yaw Pare

For the diaspora, Pare’s work is a call to reflection. It is a visual narrative that reminds us that the past is not distant; it is alive within our identities, our cultures, and our struggles for justice and recognition. His photographs aim not just to educate but to ignite difficult conversations — conversations about loss, displacement, resistance, and ultimately, reconnection.

“A picture is worth a thousand words,” Pare asserts — and in this case, his photographs deliver volumes. Remnants of a Haunted Past challenges viewers to move beyond casual acknowledgment of history to a deeper engagement with the truths that shaped us. It is both a tribute to those who came before us and a tool for those who seek to chart a more conscious future.

Image created by Yaw Pare

For those ready to embark on a journey of remembrance and rediscovery, Yaw Pare’s work offers a profound starting point. Remnants of a Haunted Past is available through outlets like Booknook.store and GhanaTRVL, ensuring that this vital conversation remains accessible to communities across the globe.

In a world that often urges us to move forward without looking back, Yaw Pare reminds us that it is only through confronting the haunted remnants of our past that we can truly heal and find our way home.