About Us. |
Our Mission.The Kru (Krao/Klao) Coast Heritage Initiative aims to understand, document, record, analyze, and share the history of the Kru (Krao/Klao) people starting in Sinoe County, Republic of Liberia, West Africa.
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Our Goals.Our goals are to work with local communities to document, preserve, share, and interpret cultural heritage in the Kru Coast region of West Africa, specifically southeastern Liberia, Sinoe County in particular.
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Our Methods.We do this through rigorous academic study, including archival research, recording oral history from elders, investigating archaeological sites and studying objects that were used by past peoples, and discussing this history and archaeology with experts and interested people around the world.
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Our Team.
Prince D. KondehPrince Kondeh is Klao from Jerboetutie, Upper Tartweh, Sinoe County, Republic of Liberia. He is an IT specialist and teacher. Kondeh has a diploma in Information Technology from Indiana Wesleyan University and graduated in 2025 from Humanity First Ahmadiyya Vocational College. He received his West African Senior School Examination Certificate and diploma from Sinoe Multilateral High School. Kondeh is passionate about mobilizing young people to focus and take ownership of their future. Kondeh is co-director and co-founder of KCHI and runs KCHI's youth history mobilization program.
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Megan CrutcherMegan Crutcher is a maritime historian and archaeologist from the eastern U.S. (Pennsylvania and Virginia). Crutcher is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut studying West African maritime and historical archaeology. Crutcher has Bachelor's and Master's degrees in history, and holds a PhD in Anthropology from Texas A&M University (2025), where her dissertation used archaeology and oral history to argue that the Kru repeatedly strategically defined themselves through economic and political action. Crutcher is co-director and co-founder of KCHI.
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Samuel D. TogbaSamuel D. Togba is a son of Nana Kru and Settra Kru, District 2, Sinoe County, Liberia. Togba currently holds the office of President for the Seebeh Youth Association (SEYA). He is also a professional footballer playing midfielder for the Sinoe NPA Anchors Football Club, the first and only Liberian Football Association Division II team in Sinoe County. Togba graduated in 2019 from Seebeh High School and is pursuing higher education at Sinoe County Community College. Togba is a KCHI research affiliate since 2024, and is also a community liason who assists with KCHI's youth history mobilization program.
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K. Cynthia NyenkanCynthia Nyenkan graduated from St. Joseph Catholic High School (class of 2025) in Greenville, Sinoe County, Republic of Liberia, where she was president of the student press. She hails from Jedepo, Sinoe County. Nyenkan is a practicing journalist with experience in journalism, women's and youth activism, and business management. She is currently pursuing higher education in Monrovia. Nyenkan manages KCHI social media (Facebook) and started with KCHI as a student assistant in 2024.
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Kwaku Mintah DanquahE. Kwaku Mintah Danquah is a PhD candidate in African History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Originally from Ghana, he holds an MPhil. in History from the University of Ghana and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Education, Winneba. He is also a Skott Kloeck-Jenson Fellow at the UW-Madison, where he researches the history of Liberian migrants, especially the Kru, in Ghana and West Africa and how they used their connections in British West Africa to counteract the hegemonic designs of the Americo-Liberian State in the 19th and 20th centuries. Danquah is a KCHI research affiliate since 2025.
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Our Story.
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Prince Kondeh and Megan Crutcher established this project in 2023 after working together on a pilot study. We began working in Greenville, Sinoe County, Liberia in 2023 with the central idea of our project spoken by Kondeh as "our archaeology, our coast, our heritage." Met with the lack of information about Indigenous Liberian history, we determined to create a heritage project that was led exclusively by the needs and concerns of Sinoeans, most especially historical Kru communities. We have since piloted student workshops on history, published in academic journals and popular outlets, spoken to academic and popular groups around the world, and partnered with numerous institutions to tell Liberian and Kru history.
Our team works across Sinoe County. We have conducted oral histories and archaeology at sites (listed under the "Sites" tab) across the county, most notably Settra Kru (Welteh) and Nana Kru (Nyenmala) on the Atlantic Coast. Our focus is on building relationships with communities, people, and their stories, who are leaders, partners, and guides in this work. Together we hope to honor and amplify the voices of Indigenous Liberians to tell these stories in their own words. Want to be involved? Head to our Contact Page to get in touch! |
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Our Supporters.
Our project has been generously supported by: the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (2024-2025), the Texas A&M University Department of Anthropology (2023-2025), Trinity College-Hartford (2025-2027), the Society for Postmedieval Archaeology (2024), and a number of individuals and communities who have supported us financially, emotionally, spiritually, and scholastically, too numerous to list here.
University of Liberia-Atlantic Center for Research and Evaluation Institutional Review Board (UL-ACRE-IRB). #FWA00032198.
Want to get involved? Interested in working with us? Head to our Contact Page to get in touch!
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