Cape Coast & Elmina Castles
I have been to Cape Coast twice now. It is a very important destination for travelers to visit, but also difficult to put the experience into words.
The first visit was to tour the castles at Cape Coast and Elmina. Elmina was the first perminant European building in West Africa and is significant because it represent the era of trade between Europe and West Africa. It was built by the Portugese and used by the Dutch and then turned over to the English when they took control of the entire Gold Coast in I think 1860s. Cape Coast was also built by the Portugese but then captured by the English. Both of these buildings have a long and varied history, not all of it pleasant.
Initially they were built as trading forts. They were places of storage for the goods coming from Europe to West Africa and those awaiting transport back to Europe. Initially the majority of the trade was in gold, but also in other goods. They were centers of interaction with Europe and also the centers from which Christianity entered into Ghana. The first Ghanian Anglican priest (who was trained in England and returned to Ghana for his ministry) is buried in the courtyard at Cape Coast Castle.
Then West Africans were transported to the Americas, thus marking the beginning of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. During the next 400 years more people than I can really comprehend were transported across the Atlanta. A huge majority of them were processed through these coastal castles. Because sea travel is dependent upon the prevailing winds, often times men and women would have to wait several months until there were ships available to take them. During that time they were kept in the dungeons of the castles that were previously built to hold more savory goods used for exchange. In Elmina Castle, it is the original Catholic church built by the Portugese that was turned into the trading hall were merchants exchanged the West African slaves for riffles and other goods, about 3 rifles per man or 1 rifle per woman.
In Cape Coast there is a tunnel under the outer Castle wall which the slaves would have to walk from the dungeons where they were held out to the gate which opened onto the dock and sea. The tunnel is now blocked off for symbolic reasons, but the gate is still there. The gate is called “The Door of No Return” and there is a plaque with this inscribed on the inside. A few years ago, the bones of two slaves, one from the US and one from the Caribean, were exhumed and brought back in a ritual that involved brining them back through the door. In memory of this, there is a plaque on the outside of the gate which reads “The Door of Return.”
In Elmina we went first into the cell where the European soldiers who had committed some crime were kept for their punishment period. It was not pleasant, but there were windows in the upper parts that let in light and air. Next door to it was the death cell, with a scull and crossbone carved into the stone above it. Only those who were condemned to die by dehydration or starvation were put into this cell. Usually it was the leaders of the slaves in the dungeons who tried to rebel and escape who were put here. There were several rebellions over the period of the slave trade, but none were successful. The dungeons themselves where the slaves were held for up to 3 months while waiting for transport are hard to explain. They do have a window or two in them to let in a small ray of light and fresh air, and the rooms seem kind of large until you realize that 50 or 100 or 200 people were kept all together in one room, with no sanitation, and only one meal a day. When the ships come, the people are herded out through very small openings that require them to stoop and travel in single file such that order can be better kept.
The women and men were always kept separately. At Elmina the cells for the women were better in that they had a full wall or two that was just bars. This was nicer in that they had access to light and air, but it also meant for more exposure. The governor’s residence overlook the courtyard at the center of the women’s cells. Women were put on display in the courtyard where they could be selected for sexual use. Women who refused could be chained to one of the cannon-balls in the center of the courtyard where they would be in the full exposure of the elements.
Whenever I face these genocidal acts of humanity, whether at the Holocaust Memorial Museum or the Hiroshima Peace Museum or here at Cape Coast and Elmina, I am shocked that we as humans can be so brutal in our treatment of other humans. Sometimes the stories that the tour guides would tell us seemed so extreme that I couldn’t believe that they happened. I have toned down my reflections here to just a vague generalization of what I personally observed and the tamest of the atrocities described, yet even those are horrendous.
What I still cannot comprehend is the shear magnitude of the number of people who passed through the walls of those castles. I know that people died during the long walks to get to the castles, then they died in the dungeons and also on the ships. What we have is a record of those that arrived, and those numbers are too great for me to comprehend.
The first visit was to tour the castles at Cape Coast and Elmina. Elmina was the first perminant European building in West Africa and is significant because it represent the era of trade between Europe and West Africa. It was built by the Portugese and used by the Dutch and then turned over to the English when they took control of the entire Gold Coast in I think 1860s. Cape Coast was also built by the Portugese but then captured by the English. Both of these buildings have a long and varied history, not all of it pleasant.
Initially they were built as trading forts. They were places of storage for the goods coming from Europe to West Africa and those awaiting transport back to Europe. Initially the majority of the trade was in gold, but also in other goods. They were centers of interaction with Europe and also the centers from which Christianity entered into Ghana. The first Ghanian Anglican priest (who was trained in England and returned to Ghana for his ministry) is buried in the courtyard at Cape Coast Castle.
Then West Africans were transported to the Americas, thus marking the beginning of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. During the next 400 years more people than I can really comprehend were transported across the Atlanta. A huge majority of them were processed through these coastal castles. Because sea travel is dependent upon the prevailing winds, often times men and women would have to wait several months until there were ships available to take them. During that time they were kept in the dungeons of the castles that were previously built to hold more savory goods used for exchange. In Elmina Castle, it is the original Catholic church built by the Portugese that was turned into the trading hall were merchants exchanged the West African slaves for riffles and other goods, about 3 rifles per man or 1 rifle per woman.
In Cape Coast there is a tunnel under the outer Castle wall which the slaves would have to walk from the dungeons where they were held out to the gate which opened onto the dock and sea. The tunnel is now blocked off for symbolic reasons, but the gate is still there. The gate is called “The Door of No Return” and there is a plaque with this inscribed on the inside. A few years ago, the bones of two slaves, one from the US and one from the Caribean, were exhumed and brought back in a ritual that involved brining them back through the door. In memory of this, there is a plaque on the outside of the gate which reads “The Door of Return.”
In Elmina we went first into the cell where the European soldiers who had committed some crime were kept for their punishment period. It was not pleasant, but there were windows in the upper parts that let in light and air. Next door to it was the death cell, with a scull and crossbone carved into the stone above it. Only those who were condemned to die by dehydration or starvation were put into this cell. Usually it was the leaders of the slaves in the dungeons who tried to rebel and escape who were put here. There were several rebellions over the period of the slave trade, but none were successful. The dungeons themselves where the slaves were held for up to 3 months while waiting for transport are hard to explain. They do have a window or two in them to let in a small ray of light and fresh air, and the rooms seem kind of large until you realize that 50 or 100 or 200 people were kept all together in one room, with no sanitation, and only one meal a day. When the ships come, the people are herded out through very small openings that require them to stoop and travel in single file such that order can be better kept.
The women and men were always kept separately. At Elmina the cells for the women were better in that they had a full wall or two that was just bars. This was nicer in that they had access to light and air, but it also meant for more exposure. The governor’s residence overlook the courtyard at the center of the women’s cells. Women were put on display in the courtyard where they could be selected for sexual use. Women who refused could be chained to one of the cannon-balls in the center of the courtyard where they would be in the full exposure of the elements.
Whenever I face these genocidal acts of humanity, whether at the Holocaust Memorial Museum or the Hiroshima Peace Museum or here at Cape Coast and Elmina, I am shocked that we as humans can be so brutal in our treatment of other humans. Sometimes the stories that the tour guides would tell us seemed so extreme that I couldn’t believe that they happened. I have toned down my reflections here to just a vague generalization of what I personally observed and the tamest of the atrocities described, yet even those are horrendous.
What I still cannot comprehend is the shear magnitude of the number of people who passed through the walls of those castles. I know that people died during the long walks to get to the castles, then they died in the dungeons and also on the ships. What we have is a record of those that arrived, and those numbers are too great for me to comprehend.
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