Yesterday was our day to face the atrocities of the Atlantic slave trade.
For this, we undertook the 135km journey from Accra to Cape Coast.
The roads are relatively good and we had an excellent driver in Livingston, who doubles as my informant on everything cultural, tribal and historical.😊.
He is well rounded.
Livingston is extremely knowledgeable. |
Ghanaians, I find in the main, to be very polite and capable drivers and they are prevented from speeding too much due to the proliferation of speed bumps, (aka. sleeping policemen) large and small.
Elmina Town today is a bustling fishing village, to which traders come to from near and far to get supplies.
A long sea wall keeps out the water from the angry Atlantic Ocean.
The castle bears the memories of 'man's inhumanity to man' and the evils of Christianity.
Biblical quote in chapel above where slaves were tortured. |
It was first erected in 1482 by the Portuguese as a trading center until they realized how much more lucrative it was to trade in humans rather than goods.
Britain was one of the most successful slave-trading countries. Together with Portugal, the two countries accounted for about 70% of all Africans transported to the Americas.
Britain was the most dominant between 1640 and 1807 when it is estimated that Britain transported 3.1 million Africans (of whom 2.7 million arrived) to the British colonies in the Caribbean, North and South America and to other countries.
The British took over Elmina Castle and the fort in 1837 after they claimed they had officially officially abolished slavery In 1807. However their traders either outrightly continued the trade or owned most of the ships that took millions of captured Africans to their doom.
You could often hear our guide's voice crack with emotion as he related some of the atrocities our ancestors experienced.
He reminded me a lot of our guide at Robben island where Mandela had been imprisoned 😡.
Jamaica has just as many actual church buildings as they do (proportionate to size and population of course) but whereas in Jamaica, there is a bar beside each church (for the men?)😚, I saw very few bars along the road to Cape Coast.
Slaves were kept on the ground floor of the castle. The second floor was a chapel and where religious leaders lived and the third floor was the governor's residence. |
Taking a break from the heartbreaking stories |
The passage leading to a dungeon |
The door of no return through which slaves were transported to small canoes. The canoes took them to the large slave ships anchored offshore. |
The dungeon to which rebellious slaves were taken. It had no ventilation and they were starved to death, then their bodies dumped in the ocean. |
One of the smaller religious billboards on the roadside. |
I am shocked at how much Ghanaians are into Christianity today despite this stark reminders in their midst of how evil it was! (25% of Ghanians are Muslim, the rest are christian.)
Jamaica has just as many actual church buildings as they do (proportionate to size and population of course) but whereas in Jamaica, there is a bar beside each church (for the men?)😚, I saw very few bars along the road to Cape Coast.
2 comments:
Wow, no words!
Very enlightening. Thanks for sharing.
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