Inaugural Seminar  ·  27 May 2026

New
Ecologies

New narratives, new knowledge systems, new ways of building institutions for the African continent and its diaspora.

Register Now – $97
27 May 2026  ·  Live via Zoom
About the Seminar

A different grammar for the world we are building.

We are at a moment when the institutions, narratives, and knowledge systems we inherited are revealing their limits. The question is not only how to reform them, but how to build anew, from different ground.

New Ecologies is the inaugural seminar of ANO University: a 90-minute live session that introduces a methodology rooted in Akan epistemology, oral transmission, and ceremonial knowledge, and asks what it means to carry these into contemporary practice.

This is not a lecture. It is a structured conversation, a workshop, and an encounter with a way of thinking that has been developing over decades of practice, research, and institutional building in Ghana and beyond.

It is for practitioners, researchers, artists, educators, and anyone who is trying to build something that lasts on their own terms.

Three Movements
I
Naming the Ecology
Where are we? What is the landscape of knowledge, narrative, and institution that we are navigating? We begin by naming honestly: what has been lost, what persists, and what is still alive and in motion.
0:00 – 0:25
II
The Grammar of Knowledge
An introduction to ANO's methodology: AYAN, ADAE, and AFAHYE as a living epistemological grammar. How drum poetry, ancestral ceremony, and state festival become tools for building knowledge, memory, and institution in the present.
0:25 – 0:55
III
Building in Practice
What does it look like when institutions grow from this ground? A practitioner-facing workshop: participants work with the 15 tools of the ANO methodology, applied to their own specific contexts and questions.
0:55 – 1:30
Questions We Will Work With
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What is the difference between extracting knowledge from a culture and building from within it?
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How do oral and ceremonial traditions carry institutional intelligence that written archives cannot hold?
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What does rematriation mean, beyond the return of objects, in the domain of knowledge and narrative?
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How do we build institutions that are regenerative rather than preservational?
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What is the role of ceremony, rest, and communal voice in how knowledge is passed on and renewed?
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How do we narrate from within a living system, rather than about it from outside?
Your Host
Nana Oforiatta Ayim
Nana
Oforiatta
Ayim
Founder, ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge

Nana Oforiatta Ayim is the founder of the ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge, based in Accra, Ghana. She is a cultural theorist, author, filmmaker, and curator whose work spans institutional building, oral knowledge systems, and the theory and practice of the African archive.

Her work with ANO, with knowledge keepers across Africa and its diaspora, as well as her doctoral research at the University of Oxford, centres on AYAN, ADAE, and AFAHYE as a unified epistemological grammar: how drum poetry, ancestral ceremony, and state festival together encode ways of knowing, remembering, and renewing community.

She is the founding director of the Pan-African Cultural Encyclopaedia, creator of the Mobile Museum, and has worked with institutions including the British Museum, LACMA, and cultural bodies across Africa and its diaspora. New Ecologies is the first offering of ANO University, the educational arm of the Institute she has been building for over two decades.

ANO Institute Cultural Encyclopaedia Mobile Museum ANO University
What Is Included
Live 90-Minute Seminar
A structured session combining lecture, methodology workshop, and guided reflection. Live via Zoom, 27 May 2026.
Recording for 30 Days
Full session recording available for 30 days after the live seminar, so you can return to what landed most.
The New Ecologies Workbook
A purpose-built workbook for the live session: reflection prompts for each movement, the 15 tools, and the 6 traps. Yours to keep.
Live Q&A with Nana
Direct conversation following the session. Questions submitted in advance and taken live.
Register

Join the Founding Cohort

The inaugural session of ANO University. A limited number of places for practitioners, researchers, and builders ready for a different kind of learning.

$97
Includes workbook  ·  Recording  ·  Live Q&A  ·  27 May 2026
Register Now Ebook only – $30

Questions? Write to info@anoghana.org

Questions
When is the seminar?
Tuesday, 27 May 2026. The exact time will be confirmed on registration, with options to accommodate participants across different time zones.
Will the session be recorded?
Yes. All registered participants receive access to the full recording for 30 days after the live session.
Who is this seminar for?
Practitioners, researchers, artists, educators, and cultural workers who are building things that matter, and who want a more rooted and rigorous framework for doing so. No prior knowledge of Akan philosophy is required.
What is the ebook?
New Ecologies: A Manifesto and Practitioner's Guide is the companion reading for the seminar. It lays out the intellectual ground, the 15 tools, and the 6 traps of the ANO methodology. Available separately for $30.
Is this part of a larger programme?
Yes. New Ecologies is the inaugural seminar of ANO University, the educational arm of the ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge. Future seminars and a longer programme of study are in development.