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The Slave Fortresses of Ghana

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Lordina Coel
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« on: July 15, 2009, 01:40:18 am »

The Slave Fortresses of Ghana
By JUDITH GRAHAM; JUDITH GRAHAM, a reporter for The Denver Post, recently spent three months in Ghana.
Published: Sunday, November 25, 1990


A FEW centuries ago the African slave trade thrived at the European-built castles and forts clustered on Ghana's southern coast. Today the fortresses reveal some of the horrors of West Africa's past.

No other stretch of African coastline carries the scars of history as this one does. Along a 156-mile span, more than 25 stone structures remain as testaments to the slave trade that reached across the Gulf of Guinea to the Americas from the mid-1500's to the late 1800's.

By the peak of the trade, in the 18th century, more than 50 fortifications crowded these shores. Today many lie in ruins along a coastline virtually untouched by development. A few are guesthouses; several have become prisons. One is a lighthouse; another, Christianborg Castle, is the seat of government in Ghana, which won independence from Britain in 1957.

The history of these bastions -- built by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, the Danes, the Swedes, the French and the Germans -- is one of exploration, exploitation, greed and freedom lost. In their damp dungeons, the unimaginable becomes real.

Visitors generally make a two-day trip to the castles along the coastal highway that connects Accra, Ghana's capital, with Abidjan, Ivory Coast, West Africa's most impressive metropolis.

The pleasures of the road are relatively few: giant red and yellow anthills, a glimpse of mud-hut villages with thatched roofs. Art lovers may want to visit some towns along the way (Mankessim, Salt Pond, Anomabu) in search of asafo shrines, highly imaginative folk-art structures built of concrete by local social clubs. (They're impossible to find without a guide; ask the villagers for help.) All are decked with fantastic sculptures -- five-headed dragons, elephants, whales or men in fetish coats -- symbolizing proverbs or notable events in the village's history. One of the most fantastic is the No. 6 shrine in Anomabu, in the form of a large, brilliantly painted ship. For most of the journey, neither the ocean nor any of the forts and castles can be seen, because the road from Accra is often some distance from the shore.

Elmina, 93 miles west of Accra, at the western edge of Ghana's central region, is different. Here the highway looks out on coconut groves lining the beach, and the massive weight of St. George's Castle, at the end of the bay's long sweep, is clear even from a distance. Here the contrasts that characterize Europe's first footholds on the continent make themselves felt: the gray and white of the stone against the turquoise and green of the sea, the fortified solidity of the structure against the airy openness of the horizon.

Built in 1482 by the Portuguese in the area they called Mina de Ouro (the gold mine), after they found vast quantities of the precious metal there, the castle is the oldest European structure in sub-Saharan Africa. For more than 100 years the area around Elmina was the center of a thriving trade in gold, ivory and peppers, which the Africans supplied in abundance, and cloth, beads, metals and hardware, which the Portuguese brought from Europe.

After two unsuccessful attempts to take it, the Dutch captured the castle in 1637 with an assault from the land. Mindful of similar threats, they built Fort Coenraadsburg on St. Iago Hill, where it keeps watch to this day over St. George's rear. The great castle then became the African headquarters of the Dutch West Indies Company, whose business was supplying the needs of the New World's great plantations. Foremost among these was the need for labor; the Dutch became the slave trade's masters.

Elmina's storerooms were converted to dungeons as other European powers built lodges and forts on what became known as the Gold Coast and began competing fiercely for their share of the trade from the mid-1600's on. The building that once housed a Portuguese Catholic Church became Elmina's slave market, where African dealers brought their captives, many of them victims of tribal wars. By the 18th century an estimated 68,400 slaves were exported from Africa each year, of whom about 41,000 came from West Africa, according to published accounts of the times. Of those, 10,000 left Elmina's shores when the castle was operating at full capacity, according to Ghana's Museums and Monuments Board.

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/25/travel/the-slave-fortresses-of-ghana.html
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Lordina Coel
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« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2009, 01:41:01 am »

A double moat, now dry, guards the entrance to the vast, rectangular, 97,000-square-foot castle, built over the course of four centuries. Perched on the end of a rocky peninsula, its four great watchtowers command a view of the surrounding sea; above, on the landside, six 12-foot-long Dutch cannons are aimed at the town. Inside, an eerie stillness hangs over a large stone courtyard, illuminated by the sun's unrelenting glare. The castle's inner facade, made of lime, stone and bricks imported from Europe, is stark and austere. Darkened windows gape above its great double stone stairs; a black iron balustrade, marked "W" for William, King of Orange (1672-1702), is the only touch of decoration.

Charles Adu-Arhin, a full-time visitors' guide employed by the museums board, met me upstairs, where the visitors' book was open at comments from Claudia Schank of Germany ("How can people treat each other like that?") and Kwabana of Ghana ("Makes you think very deep"). Mr. Adu-Arhin led me to a smaller, older stone courtyard flanked by four dungeons. Each held as many as 200 women for up to three months. Food was handed through the iron gates on a long paddle; there was no toilet, no room to lie down and sleep. The only air or light came through the doorways or a few small holes at either end of the ceiling. When the governor wanted a bedmate, he stood on a balcony above and picked one of the women herded into the courtyard, our guide said.

The fate of those who rebelled -- those who tried to escape, for instance, or cause unrest -- was harsh. Men were sent to the condemned cell, a small black room with one hole in the wall, where they were starved to death, our guide said. Women were beaten and chained to cannon balls in the courtyard.

In the slave market, two slits in the wall looking into the room testify to the fear of traders, who dared not meet their captives face to face. They did their business from behind the wall, peering in.

An underground tunnel, through which slaves passed when they left Elmina, sweats with dampness. The peeling walls are covered with a green mold. At the end is a narrow opening, which once led to the beach where canoes took the captives to ships at anchor. It frames the sun's brilliant light; inside the tunnel all is dark. Turning back along the tunnel to visit the male dungeons, larger but not different in kind from the ones already seen, I felt a swelling sense of oppression.

Mr. Adu-Arhin is thorough and informative as we pass through the officers' pleasant wood-floored quarters on the second floor.

FOR two years he has taken visitors from all over the world around the castle. He is proud of what he knows of its dark history and its incarnations after the Dutch sold it to the British in 1872. During World War II the castle was the training ground for the West African Frontier Force, which fought with distinction in Burma. Today, on the former site of the Dutch Reformed Church on the second floor, it houses one of Ghana's District Assemblies, a relatively new experiment with democratic forms for the one-party Government.

The raucous sights and smells of Elmina's crowded fish market, close to the castle's entrance, are overwhelming after the silence inside, so I headed for relief and a cold drink at the Elmina Motel's outdoor terrace, just down the road. The motel is the main stopover point for visitors to the area, most of whom combine a visit to Elmina with a visit to Cape Coast Castle, the second of Ghana's three great castles, 30 miles east of Elmina. (The third is Christiansborg Castle, headquarters of the Government and off-limits to the general public.) Cape Coast Castle was built in 1653 by the Swedish and in the next 12 tumultuous years changed hands five times. It fell first to Danish forces, then came under the control of a local king, who sold it back to the Swedes. It then succumbed to the Dutch and was wrested from them by the British in 1664. For the next 212 years the castle was the base of Britain's interests in West Africa. The British unseated the Dutch from their supremacy in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and by the 19th century were the masters of the seas.
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Lordina Coel
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« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2009, 01:41:41 am »

Cape Coast's grim entrance, facing one of the town's streets, has none of the grandeur of the haughty, distant Elmina. The triangular-shaped Cape Coast Castle is smaller, at 23,000 square feet, and is less impressively positioned than its neighbor. Built by slaves of imported bricks, wood and tiles and local stone, one part of the castle, closed to the public, still serves as a prison. Just inside the entrance, is a museum with an odd assortment of Ghanaian relics, historical etchings and materials from the slave trade. Inside, the castle opens confidently to the sea. Looking out over the great trapezoidal stone courtyard to the walkway where 16 three-ton cannons face the waves, I immediately got an impression of aggression and military might.

Its male dungeons shock, even after Elmina. The ramp to them goes more than 10 feet underground, into four black rooms with a stale, slightly acrid smell. Under the large arched roofs, bats fly about, blinded by the sudden light switched on so that visitors can find their way. Some stones bear circular scratchings -- made by captives out of a desperate desire to leave some mark? From here there was no escape for the 1,500 slaves the castle held when it was full.

Along with the castles there are the forts: much smaller, more intimate and less intimidating. There is the stolid Dutch fort Good Hope at Senya Beraku, where villagers sit astride the old cannons outside, talking. There is also the elegant British fort at Dixcove, its arched doorways flanked by columns. Here a lingering sense of abstraction ("How was it possible?") vanishes when one sees how close the quarters were. There was no distance between captor and captive; the Europeans lived a stone's throw away from the imprisoned Africans, like the closest of neighbors. The scale is fully human; the inhumanity becomes more real.

It was at Fort St. Anthony of Axim that my last reserves gave way. Climbing the wooden ladder into the men's dungeon, I put my hand out to steady myself on the wall. It oozed of slime. I wanted to turn back. But down I went 12 feet to the bottom, where the heat in the small room made me feel faint.

John Kwaku Andoh, the fort's caretaker, bowed his head. "Any time I take visitors here I pray to Almighty God, He who has abolished the trade from Africa," he said. He paused a moment and then continued: "I am sorry to tell you there was a door here they used to close. They chained the men. They took the ladder out. It became hot like fire." Suddenly, I was filled with panic; I was boiling. I had to escape. For a single, unbearable instant, I felt the horror.

Outside, the bright midday sunlight cast an unforgiving glare and the scene seemed unreal, frozen. It took some time to recover; there is only so much that any traveler can take. But thankfully, when one has had one's fill of the castles and forts, there are nearby fishing towns and beaches to explore. They are just the thing for those who want to see West Africa unadulterated: vibrant, colorful and notable for its friendliness.

Of the beaches, the finest and best known is Busua Pleasure Beach, a great arc of white sand off the road that goes down to Dixcove, about two hours west of Elmina. Just off the beach is a roughing-it-only group of bungalows -- offering only cots, a roof and barely usable bathrooms -- for those who want to spend the night.

For privacy and unbeatable food and accommodations there is the Biriwa Beach Resort, about 15 minutes from Cape Coast on the coastal road heading back toward Accra. A large yellow sign will point you down an unpaved road to the house where Hanne Kleinebudde, the German owner, showers her guests with personal attention. The resort has its own beach and the best restaurant in the area.

D RUMMING and dancing is the specialty of the Adacemy of African Music and Arts-Kokrobite Beach Resorts, five miles off the coastal highway on the way back to Accra. Run by Mustapha Tettey Addy, a master drummer, it trains students from across the world and on weekends has colorful performances from 2 to 6 P.M. Young dancers catch the rhythm of the drums with their feet and hips, moving faster and faster, celebrating freedom.
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Lordina Coel
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« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2009, 01:42:27 am »

The music builds to a crescendo: insistent, compelling, sounding a release. The sun beats on brilliant red flame trees in full blossom; in the background white breakwaters accent the azure sea. A toddler moves to the dance floor, throws out his arms, and goes round in a circle. The crowd laughs and he does it again. The energy of the scene restores; it salves the spirit weighed down by scenes of the disturbing past. EXPLORING HISTORIC CASTLES: A VISITOR'S GUIDE Getting There

Elmina is a two-hour car trip from Accra on the coastal highway heading west. Major hotels charge about $60 a day for a car with a driver.

Renting a car and driving it yourself is also possible, but more difficult to arrange. Taxis will make the trip for a negotiable fee, around $35 to $40. A word of warning: while Ghana's major highways are generally in good condition, caution is in order. The major risks are brightly painted bush taxis, whose drivers appreciate no speed limits and will pass without hesitation or clear sight of what lies ahead. From the central coastal region and westward, also watch out for trucks barreling along carrying huge logs from upland timber regions.

State Transport Corporation buses, at $2 a person, are the least convenient but cheapest option of getting to Elmina; they leave from Accra's central station. When to Go

The best time of the year to visit is July through September or November and December, after the rainy season (April to June and October), and before the harmattan, a dry dusty wind that blows in from the interior. February to April is the hottest time of the year. The Fortresses

The castles and forts are open seven days a week, from 8 A.M. to noon and 2 to 4:30 P.M. The entrance fee is $1.75, calculated at a rate of 340 cedis to the $1. There is also a $1.45 charge for taking still photographs and a $2.90 charge for using a video camera. At Elmina Castle, Cape Coast Castle and the forts at Axim, Dixcove and Senya Beraku, a guided tour is included.

The following castles and forts are listed in order of their closeness to Accra on the highway leading west:

Fort Good Hope, in the town of Senya Beraku.

Leydsaemheyt, at Apam (now a guesthouse with barebones facilities costing $1.50 a night).

Cape Coast Castle, at Cape Coast.

St. George's Castle, at Elmina.

Fort Coenraadsburg, also at Elmina.

Fort St. Sebastian, at Shama.

Fort Batensteyn, at Butri.

Fort Metal Cross, at Dixcove (also a guesthouse for low-budget travelers only).

Fort St. Anthony, at Axim.

Fort Apollonia, at Beyin. Food and Lodgings

In Ghana's coastal region, hotels generally are also the best restaurants.

Academy of African Music and Arts, Kokrobite Beach Resorts (contact Sunseekers Tours, Accra Novotel, Barnes Road, Accra; telephone 667546, ext. 2184). Some 18 miles from Accra, its excellent restaurant, with fresh squeezed juices, grilled seafood and a well-stocked bar, draws diplomats and development officials from the capital. Dinner for two about $20. Thirty singles and doubles, without air- conditioning, go for $11 to $15.

Biriwa Beach Hotel, Post Office Box 50, Biriwa (no telephone). Overlooking a scenic cove, this cosy getaway is decorated with an eclectic mix of Danish-style furniture and Oriental art. The three double rooms share a bathroom and go for $11.60 a night; the seven chalets, with their own baths, are between $20.25 and $43.50. German and seafood dishes are the specialty. A meal for two from $12 to $25.

Dan's Paradise, Post Office Box 5088, Cape Coast; 221802 or 225939. In town but off the beaten path, this is the best of Cape Coast's established hotels. Eighteen air-conditioned double rooms cost $19 a night. The restaurant serves Chinese, Ghanaian and Continental cuisine, plus seafood. Dinner for two $14.50 to $25.

Elmina Motel, Post Office Box 100, Elmina; 20. Right on the beach, the motel's 67 simply furnished bungalows cost $21.75 and accommodate two. The restaurant features seafood specials. Dinner for two $14.50 to $20.

Atlantic Hotel, Post Office Box 273, Takoradi; 3301. Government-run, with 70 doubles and suites, this stopover is in the center of Ghana's coastal region, in the country's third largest city, about three hours from Accra. Doubles are $29.65 without air-conditioning or $57.40 with air-conditioning; suites are $63.75. Two can dine on lobster Provencal or beef stroganoff for $17 to $25. J. G.

Photo: A dungeon for women at St. George's Castle, Elmina, the oldest European structure in sub-Saharan Africa. (Judith Graham); Fort Metal Cove at Dixcove has been turned into a guest house for low-budget travelers. Cape Coast Castle was built by the Swedish in 1653 and changed hands five times in the next 12 years. (John Elk 3d/Bruce Coleman Inc.); Map of Ghana.
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Lordina Coel
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« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2009, 01:45:01 am »

Obamas visit slave fortress in Ghana

CAPE COAST, Ghana, July 11 (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama, after visiting Ghana's best-known slave castle Saturday, compared it to one of World War II's most infamous Nazi concentration camps.

The president toured Cape Coast Castle with his wife Michelle, and their daughters Malia and Sasha. The castle, about 100 miles west of Accra, was built by Europeans as a gold and timber depot and later converted to a holding pen for slaves about to be shipped to the Americas.

"It is reminiscent of the trip I took to Buchenwald because it reminds us of the capacity of human beings to commit great evil," Obama said in brief remarks after the tour that referenced the death camp that was part of Nazi Germany's efforts to exterminate Jews and other ethnic minorities they deemed undesirable.

"One of the most striking things that I heard was that right above the dungeons in which male captives were kept was a church, and that reminds us that sometimes we can tolerate and stand by great evil even as we think that we're doing good."

Obama said his daughters, "who are growing up in such a blessed way," learned of the "cruel turns" history takes. He added that for African-Americans the castle is a place of "profound sadness" but also the place where their unique history began.

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/07/11/Obamas-visit-slave-fortress-in-Ghana/UPI-94691247344520/
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« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2009, 01:46:58 am »

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« Reply #6 on: July 15, 2009, 01:47:43 am »



Execution Cell - Cape Coast Castle Photo
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« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2009, 01:59:48 am »

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