Having seen what I most wanted to see of Accra, I rather spontaneously decided to book a private tour down the coast of Ghana – the Cape Coast or “Gold Coast”. It is possible to do these things by tro tro and taxi, but it would have been a stretch to do it in one day. The tour for one person (through Tichama Tours) was very pricey, but worth it.
I was picked up at 6am and we drove for about 3 hours. I can’t tell you much about that, other than that it was pleasant and I was in and out of sleep.
Our first stop was at Kakume National Park (where allegedly there are elephants and other creatures, but we didn’t see them. Probably because I kept yelling “this is so cool!”). We hiked for a bit in the humid jungle before reaching the first of 5 narrow rope bridges. It wasn’t treacherous or anything, though it would be prohibitive to those with a fear of heights.
From there we drove a bit farther to the town of Elmina, which looked lovely, to visit the Elmina Castle built as a trading fort by the Portuguese in the 1400s, but is notable for being one of the slave forts or castles along the coast.
They require one to take a guided tour, which is an excellent idea or you wouldn’t really appreciate what you are looking at.
Here’s the thing, obviously I am aware of slavery and when and where it happened and of its horrors, but I realized in this tour that most of my knowledge was focused on what happened after the people were forcibly taken to the Americas. I didn’t really appreciate that before that chapter of horror were others: that people were forced to walk from their towns and villages to the slave forts. Many were killed en route. And that once they were at the fort they endured sometimes months of the worst possible captivity and treatment. Confined by the hundreds to small cells, branded, starved, raped. They even developed a tool to force feed those who tried to starve themselves to death. Hearing about it in the place (one of the places) where this happened was…upsetting. And I don’t usually feel upset when visiting sites of atrocity. And the really weird thing was that the setting and the building were so beautiful. It seems wrong that something so awful should happen in a beautiful setting.
I am glad I went.
After that I had some Ghanaian food by the sea and talked with my guide and a woman from the States volunteering with the Peace Corps.
After lunch we had one more stop just down the road: the Cape Coast Castle. It was similar to the former site, with one memorable difference. At one point, the guide drew our attention to the floor. Originally it was brick but in the cells the brick was mostly covered by a black coating. I figured it was a sort of concrete. But it isn’t. It is a hardened sludge. They tested it in recent decades and found it is composed of human blood, tissue, and feces.
Right. So I should say that both buildings have doors of no return from which slaves left for the Americas. From the outside the door to the Cape Coast Castle now reads “door of return” and some remains of slaves were repatriated. Outside now is a vibrant fishing port.
Extremely grim, but a good, emotional, and informative day. I ended it with some questionable street food and a cigar.
The next day I would travel to Lome, Togo.