From the top of the imposing Elmina Castle building overlooking the Atlantic Ocean shore, life is gliding by at an unhurried pace. The ocean current continues to hit the land in rhythmic waves. By the shore, beside the imposing white castle, some fishermen standing by their fishing boats picked out and tried to untangle their blue and white nets as they probably waited for the night to launch into the ocean to fish once again.
These optics remove one’s mind away from the pain and horror that is at the bowel of Elmina Castle. Inside this formidable-looking castle with decorative black ancient cannonballs at the top of the castle lie stories of horror that lasted hundreds of years. Here in Elmina Castle, echoes of the pains of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade are captured.
Elmina Castle was a slave dungeon where slaves were kept in rather sub-human conditions. It was here that slaves from the Gold Coast region were sorted out like inanimate chattels, loaded on a ship and transported to the New World to work in plantations or sold to work as domestic help.
Originally known as St. George’s Castle, the ancient castle in Cape Coast Ghana is located 146 kilometres from Accra, in the Central Region. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Elmina Castle was initially built as a trading post by the Portuguese traders in 1482 for trading in gold and other products from the hinterland of Africa. With the discovery of the New World in 1492 and the consequent demand for black slaves from Africa to work in the plantations, the trading in Africa shifted to slaves. The Elmina castle was a major dungeon from where captured slaves were transported to the New World.
The location of the castle is very strategic as it is directly beside the Atlantic Ocean, making it easy to convey goods and human cargo directly into the berthed merchant slave ships. The castle is elevated a little and reinforced with stones and concrete probably to make the place as formidable and impregnable for invaders. The reinforcement also made it almost impossible for held slaves to escape once they were brought into the castle.
Although Nigeria was an active participant in the slave trade through Badagry, Calabar, Opobo, and a few other slave ports, none of these places had elaborate dungeons for slaves like the Elmina Castle. Ancient Badagry slave merchants like the Mobee and Seriki Abbas had baracoons for keeping slaves, as can be seen at the Badagry Marina area, which is not as elaborate as the Elmina Castle in Ghana.
The castle is an interesting place to visit in Cape Coast. Being also a university town, Cape Coast boasts of good, though unbranded hotels. There are also budget hotels around Elmina so tourists have options that fit into their budget.
To visit the castle, tourists are expected to obtain a ticket at the entrance. In and around the vicinity of the castle are locals who work as tour guides to take one round the castle. It is best to engage one as they help visitors have a more enlightened experience at the castle and also point out key areas in the castle.
The castle is rectangular-shaped with an open inner courtyard. There is an upper residential area for the Europeans while the dungeons for slaves are on the ground floor. The slave dungeons had both male and female dungeons where more than 200 slaves were cramped in filthy conditions.
The female dungeon, in addition to the normal gate, has a discreet gate that leads up to the chamber of the head of the castle, the governor. In addition to being sold as slaves, the female slaves were often forcefully molested sexually by the governor and the Europeans.
Usually, the governor from the top of the building would view the female slaves and select the one he would want to satisfy his lust. The selected female slave had no say in this and would simply comply.
The slaves’ stay in the castle was in phases until the final period before departure when the slaves would be taken through the Door of No Return. This door directly opens into the ocean. It was from this door that slaves were moved to the slave merchant ships. Thousands of Africans passed through this door to the new world.
Ironically, even within the slave castle, there is a Portuguese Catholic church. It sits right inside the castle for slave merchants.
Over the years, Ghana has made the Elmina and Cape Coast Castles major focal points for its tourism drive through the Year of Return and Beyond the Return initiative that has thousands of blacks in the Diaspora make the journey back to Ghana, to Cape Coast to reconnect with their roots.