Ampong Has Arrived: CGP Welcomes Ghanaian Museum Guide

By WRILEY NELSON
COOPERSTOWN

SUNY Oneonta’s Cooperstown Graduate Pro-gram recently welcomed a new class of museum studies students, including Ghanaian museum guide and historian Enoch Bright Ampong. Ampong, 29, hails from the Central Region of the vibrant West African nation and graduated with honors from Takoradi Technical University’s Tourism Management program.

He has significant experience leading tours at World Heritage Sites in Ghana and the neighboring nations of Togo and Benin, including more than half a decade at Elmina Castle, the oldest European building south of the Sahara. Elmina was built as a slave-trading depot in the 1480s and remains a stark reminder of the brutal transatlantic slave trade.

CGP Professor Peter Rutkoff attended one of Ampong’s castle tours in August 2022 and was struck by Ampong’s deep knowledge and inspiring teaching style. He gave Ampong his e-mail address and urged him to continue his education in museum studies. Although CGP accepted his application in 2023, Ampong had to defer his admission and seek financial aid. A GoFundMe page coordinated by Rutkoff, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Springfield Center and the First Baptist Church of Cooperstown raised more than $15,000.00 to support his education last year.

“I’m delighted that this all worked out,” Rutkoff reflected, emphasizing Ampong’s teaching abilities and the knowledge and practical experience he can bring to CGP classrooms.

“Generous local donors provided him with tuition for the two-year program, and [CGP Director and professor] Gretchen Sorin arranged housing. Then, he had to jump through a whole series of bureaucratic somersaults to get a visa to visit the U.S. from Ghana; it’s very difficult these days, and he only got permission in December,” Rutkoff said.

“It was a difficult journey, but I’m glad to finally be here chasing my dreams,” Ampong said. “I am incredibly grateful to everyone who helped me get here and dive into my studies.”

In addition to Rutkoff and other benefactors, Ampong is especially grateful to his current host, local musician and teacher Tim Iversen. Ampong arrived in Cooperstown on January 18 and said he is adapting to his new surroundings, although the change in weather was jarring.

“He flew from 87 degrees in Accra straight to one of the coldest weekends of this miserable winter,” Sorin said. “Fortunately, the local community and the churches have been very helpful in passing along warm clothing. He found our food a little bland at first, but Spurbeck’s Grocery set him up with some hot cherry peppers and he seems to enjoy American food once it has a kick to it… Enoch is very enthusiastic about trying everything we have to offer and making it his own. I know we’re looking forward to his unique perspective as an experienced cultural educator in the classroom. The semester is off to a good start.”

“I look forward to advancing my studies in the most modern, effective museum techniques,” Ampong said.

In addition to a full slate of field research, material culture, oral history, science, American history and education classes at CGP, he will take a few courses at the main SUNY Oneonta campus. After completing the two-year master’s program, Ampong intends to return to Ghana and offer educational tours on the slave trade along the West African coast. There is a growing international interest in the history and contemporary consequences of the trade, and local West African museums and historians are the front lines of the struggle to research, understand, and avoid repeating this 400-year crime against humanity.

“Elmina would be a fantastic place for Cooperstown Graduate Program interns,” Rutkoff concluded, “and I knew from my tour that Enoch would be a great fit for the program.”

With the major hurdles of funding and State Department clearance behind him, Ampong and his supporters look forward to two years of study and cultural exchange.