Elmina and Cape Coast Castle

Hello, friends! Today started week #2 in Ghana, and I am still enjoying myself. On Saturday, I went to Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle to learn a little about the history of Ghana. The castles I am referring to are historical landmarks that stand in memory of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Ghana was one of the main countries where African men and women were taken from their homes, imprisoned, tortured, and worse. Once captured, the African men and women were placed in dungeons in these castles to wait upwards of three months on the ship to the New World. While waiting, women were picked over and raped by the governors of these castles. If they were found pregnant, they were actually taken out of the castle to give birth, and these mixed children were given homes and schooling. In these dungeons, there was little light and ventilation. If anyone tried to escape, they were taken to an even smaller room with even less ventilation where they were not given food or water. Once they entered these rooms, there was no coming out alive. With minimal light, many of the slaves would become partially blind during their wait. On the upper level of each of these castles was a church where the Portuguese, Dutch, and British would try to convert Africans to Christianity. This was one of the hardest things to fathom. Why would an African choose to believe in a God that those who had imprisoned them were worshiping? Why believe in someone who was allowing this to happen to them? After a long wait, there were passageways underneath the castle from the dungeons that led the slaves to the ship where they would never return home. This was called the "Door of No Return". Once they entered these castles, the men and women had two ways out with the exception of those impregnated by the governors. Either they died in the castle or they left never to return home again. You can see from one of the pictures below, the outside of one of these doors was recently labelled the "door of return." Ashes from some of the African descendants who left Africa never to return to their homeland were brought back through that door to symbolize that what happened so many years ago would never happen again. Saturday was definitely an eye-opening experience, and one I will never forget. It shed light on the slave trade from a different perspective that is not often taught appropriately in the US.
The Beautiful Atlantic Ocean atop Elmina Castle

"Door of Return" to symbolize the horrible things
that occurred would never happen again

"Door of No Return" where so many Africans left to never return
home again

Dungeon where 100+ women were kept with
minimal food and no bathroom (floor was littered
with blood, urine, feces, and vomit)

Atlantic Ocean (from Elmina to Cape Coast)

Beautiful Elmina from atop Elmina Castle

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