This volume consists of multiple original comprehensive scholarship about and approaches to the history of the fortresses of Ghana and Benin. It suggests an alternative approach and view on them.

John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu, Ph.D. (2000), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), is Associate Professor of History (African and World) at NTNU. He has published a monograph, many articles and edited volumes, including (with Victoria Ellen Smith) Shadows of Empire in West Africa: New Perspectives on European fortifications (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).