Elmina and Cape Coast Castles

Cape Coast Castle - This is where the captives were brought up to eat twice a day.

Male Dungeon - Men were locked in and left to die if they were not compliant.

Ghana has a sad history as a key exit point for slaves during the years between the 1400's and the early 1800's.  We visited two forts that were owned over time by the British, Portuguese and Dutch where they bought and held the slaves before putting them on  ships to the New World.

Mail Slave Cell - 150 men would be held here.

The door of no return.  Boats waited outside this narrow opening to load slaves.

Touring the two forts (called castles) was heart wrenching, as our guards painted vivid pictures of what it was like for these people, brought from inland Africa as prisoners of war or hostages, with no idea what was happening, packed hundreds to a room without ventilation,sanitation or light, and fed very little.   Many had never seen the sea before, and getting on a boat shackled to 5 or 6 others would have been terrifying.






Women were paraded in the open court of the castle, and selections were made by the senior officials.  If the women would not comply to provide pleasure, they were put into a solitary cell to encourage them to change their mind.   If they became pregnant they were allowed to stay with their child for a year, but then the child was raised by the father, and the woman was returned to her  fate on a ship to slavery.
  

A message for us to remember and never repeat this injustice.

 One of our team was born in Haiti, and is likely a descendent of one of these slaves.  Others on our team are of Dutch heritage and were appalled by what their descendents had done.   It is estimated that 20 to 25 million Africans were taken from their continent, as part of the most massage migration in history.