The Meeting at the Palace reimagines a historical moment of encounter between Ghanaian rulers and British colonial officers, originally depicted in an 1873 engraving titled The Ashantee War: Reading the Queen’s Letter at the Palaver of Kings at Accra. By reworking, the scene is no longer a colonial record but a site of reclamation, a visual negotiation of gaze, power, and history.

Through layered embroidery and vivid color, the artist transforms a monochrome engraving into a world alive with presence and agency. The red and gold tones evoke regality and ritual, while the monumental scale of the work reinstates African sovereignty as central to the narrative. The royal umbrellas, once decorative backdrops in colonial depictions, become symbols of power and continuity — hovering protectively above the gathered chiefs and emissaries.

Benissan’s work invites viewers to consider what happens when history’s imagery is rewritten through Ghanaian eyes. The Meeting at the Palace asks us to look again at who stood at the center of the story — and who held the authority to be seen.