Selena Axelrod Winsnes has been engaged, since 1982, in the translation into English, and editing of Danish language sources to West African history, sources published from 1697 to 1822, the period during which Denmark-Norway was an actor in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It comprises five major books written for the Scandinavian public. They describe all aspects of life on the Gold Coast [Ghana], the Middle Passage and the Danish Caribbean islands [US Virgin Islands], as seen by five different men. Each had his own agenda and mind-set, and the books, both singly and combined, hold a wealth of information - of interest both to scholars and lay readers. They provide important insights into the cultural baggage the enslaved Africans carried with them to the America's. One of the books, L.F.Rømer's A Reliable Account of the Coast of Guinea was runner-up for the prestigious international texts prize awarded by the U.S. African Studies Association.
Selena Winsnes lived in Ghana for five years and studied at the University of Ghana, Legon. Her mother tongue is English; and, working free-lance, she resides premanently in Norway with her husband, four children and eight grandchildren. In 2008, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters for distinguished scholarship by the University of Ghana, Legon
