Cape Coast: Part II

"Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains." - Jean-Jacques Roussea 'The Social Contract'

Ghana is the only African country with three slave castles. Therefore the majority of the African diaspora, blacks who did not travel of their own volition from Africa to the Americas including: Brazil (which has the largest number of blacks outside of Africa), the Caribbean islands (Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Haiti, etc.), and the US, have ancestors who came through Ghana at one point.

We visited two of Ghana's three slave castles. Cape Coast (1630) was the smaller of the two. It was originally built by the Swedes as a fort for missionary operations and trading and was taken over by the Dutch, the Portuguese and the English. The castle went from harboring traders of shells, ivory, spices and gold to traders of human beings.

As we walked along the tour we were led down a hallway. The guide shared with us that the slaves would have traveled through a tunnel rather than the way we were going but that the tunnel was blocked off shortly after the slave trade was abolished (though it still continued underground). The end of the hallway led to a massive door with heavy lacquered wood. At the top was a sign that said in block letters: "Door of No Return."

The guide swung it open and we moved from the dim hallway into the bright sunshine, with the salt spray of the ocean just in front of us sprinkling our faces. Some vendors had food items to sell and I thought they couldn't have been settled in a worse spot. We looked at them blankly. The guide had closed the door behind us but there was no ship waiting to take us away. Instead we just stood there, hearts pounding. And then he had us to look up and see that they had since posted a sign on the other side of the door reading: "Door of Return" and we gratefully clambered back inside.

Elmina Castle (1482) was a much bigger and grander affair built and maintained by the Portuguese. The contrast of its massive whitewashed limestone walls with the blue of the ocean reminded me of a photograph from a vacation hotspot. As the castle was not intended to hold slaves, the areas for captives had bars but were above ground and had lots of sunlight. Both castles though had special rooms to hold "terrorists" and "trouble makers" who incited riots, rebellions and uprisings amongst the slaves. These special rooms had no ventilation or light source and were stifling hot even though the door remained open (for us) and the weather outside was cool. Trouble makers would stay inside without food or water for up to 72 hours (with the door closed and locked) and many of them would die there.

A commemorative plaque inside both castles read:

In Everlasting Memory

Of the anguish of our ancestors
May those who died rest in peace
May those who return find their roots
May humanity never again perpetrate
such injustice against humanity
we, the living, vow to uphold this