Is there a material signature for slavery and colonialism? The West African coast, with its European forts and castles that were involved in the transatlantic slave trade (15th–19th century), is one such place. In this talk, Christian Mader and Philip Atta Mensah, will present the initial findings of a recent collaborative project at Fort William in Ghana, a pivotal site in the British slave trade. The project takes an interdisciplinary approach to Fort William, integrating material culture studies, digital archaeology, historical research, community-based methods, and multi-sensory ethnographic techniques. By foregrounding the material, phenomenological, and sensory dimensions of slavery and colonialism, this research reconceptualises the European forts not only as logistical nodes of imperial commerce and violence, but as enduring architectures of exploitation that continue to shape social, spatial, and political realities in postcolonial contexts.