October 30, 2006
Back in Clinton MD, thinking about the weeks that I spent in Ghana. The castles are prominent in my mind. I visited two of the 24 slave castles along the coast. Cape Coast castle and Elmina castle.
My first experience, at Cape Coast, was with my precious husband Jesse. This was his main point of interest for the trip. We had a great guide. Blankson, a nice chap from Cape Coast and a brother to our main contact Masao Meroe. Blankson (233 0244741678) has just completed his masters degree in tourism at Cape Coast University. His interest is in African American tourists. He offered historical information about the system of slavery that was a part of Ghanian culture b4 the Europeans had arrived.
His thesis is that slavery was an essential aspect of Asante life at that time. This was during a period that families had an imperitive to increase their numbers and buying slaves was part of the program. It also was a way in which the society dealt with criminals. It was seen as adopting someone, they became part of the family and actually had opportunity to change their position by work, marriage and connections.
Our guide and also his professor from the Cape Coast University explained that when the Asante/Fante sold "OTHER" Asante to the Europeans to fufill the need for laborers in the Americas, they assumed that the lives of the slaves would be akin to that of the slaves in their own culture. They had no concept of the system of chattle slavery and it's barbarism.
We were told that this is all happening within the context of ongoing trade with Europe. The Castles were built with the permission and help of the Fante along the coast of Ghana. They did well together in trade for years before humans were designated as the next big merchendise. I must say that as a visitor I could see the little bits of remaining evidence of economic growth in these coastal communities.
So we did the tour, saw the dungeons for our men. Dark, small, stone rooms, with two 6" x 12" holes for air and light. We were told that 500 men were squeezed in these rooms of which there were four. We were told that there was no place for sanitation and that the dead were left in with the living. We saw the internal walkways that were used to march the men to the door of no return. We then saw the dungeons for our women. similar to the men's dungeons except for two freaky differences.
First there were doorways, cut into the walls, about 8 feet above the floor, so that the European men could grab our women for their own pleasure whenever that so desired. They raped our women and killed them if the became pregnant. Second, there were also small cells for what Blankson explained as the troublesome women. Those who would not succumb to the men. They were left in these cells to die.
We then moved on through the internal walkways to the door of no return. A powerful experience to open the door and see nothing but sea. As we walked toward the heavily fortified walls of the fort, my eyes were fixed on the vast presence of the ocean and the sense that there was no way to know what and where it was to lead.
http://www.africa-ata.org/gh_photos1.htm
As we turned to continue our tour and we came upon a new sign that was above the door. It said the"Door of Return". This sign was placed here recently, when the bones from a slave cemetary on Wall St in NYC and also a site in Jamaica were returned for inturnment at the river side (The Joseph Project) which was the place for "The Last Bath" for captured people b4 they arrived at the castle.
We proudly passed through the door of return!
We continued to the areas of the castle where the English resided. The first place that we came upon is the English church. A chapel situated above the dungeons. Thats right, their church was right on top of our ancestors dungeons.
Then on to the offices and quarters for the Brittish. I was amazed at the stark difference in atmosphere. I immediately wanted it as my studio. Whole walls of windows, wood floors big open spaces. Jesse did not want to go into the area.
This is one of the premier tourist spots in Ghana. It has been cleaned up and painted. It is where so many African Americans come to cry, rage and understand. I surprised myself as I did not have that experience so much. The areas for the women did touch me, but there was something that was a bit too staged about the site in it's current state that kept me from really feelin it. The fact that there were so many Ghanaian voyeurs around did not help. I felt that I wanted privacy (no such thing in Ghana, there are eyes everywhere!) to really feel. I disappointed myself as I wanted to cry, I wanted to rage and I wanted to wail and discharge.......pero nada.
Back in Clinton MD, thinking about the weeks that I spent in Ghana. The castles are prominent in my mind. I visited two of the 24 slave castles along the coast. Cape Coast castle and Elmina castle.
My first experience, at Cape Coast, was with my precious husband Jesse. This was his main point of interest for the trip. We had a great guide. Blankson, a nice chap from Cape Coast and a brother to our main contact Masao Meroe. Blankson (233 0244741678) has just completed his masters degree in tourism at Cape Coast University. His interest is in African American tourists. He offered historical information about the system of slavery that was a part of Ghanian culture b4 the Europeans had arrived.
His thesis is that slavery was an essential aspect of Asante life at that time. This was during a period that families had an imperitive to increase their numbers and buying slaves was part of the program. It also was a way in which the society dealt with criminals. It was seen as adopting someone, they became part of the family and actually had opportunity to change their position by work, marriage and connections.
Our guide and also his professor from the Cape Coast University explained that when the Asante/Fante sold "OTHER" Asante to the Europeans to fufill the need for laborers in the Americas, they assumed that the lives of the slaves would be akin to that of the slaves in their own culture. They had no concept of the system of chattle slavery and it's barbarism.
We were told that this is all happening within the context of ongoing trade with Europe. The Castles were built with the permission and help of the Fante along the coast of Ghana. They did well together in trade for years before humans were designated as the next big merchendise. I must say that as a visitor I could see the little bits of remaining evidence of economic growth in these coastal communities.
So we did the tour, saw the dungeons for our men. Dark, small, stone rooms, with two 6" x 12" holes for air and light. We were told that 500 men were squeezed in these rooms of which there were four. We were told that there was no place for sanitation and that the dead were left in with the living. We saw the internal walkways that were used to march the men to the door of no return. We then saw the dungeons for our women. similar to the men's dungeons except for two freaky differences.
First there were doorways, cut into the walls, about 8 feet above the floor, so that the European men could grab our women for their own pleasure whenever that so desired. They raped our women and killed them if the became pregnant. Second, there were also small cells for what Blankson explained as the troublesome women. Those who would not succumb to the men. They were left in these cells to die.
We then moved on through the internal walkways to the door of no return. A powerful experience to open the door and see nothing but sea. As we walked toward the heavily fortified walls of the fort, my eyes were fixed on the vast presence of the ocean and the sense that there was no way to know what and where it was to lead.
http://www.africa-ata.org/gh_photos1.htm
As we turned to continue our tour and we came upon a new sign that was above the door. It said the"Door of Return". This sign was placed here recently, when the bones from a slave cemetary on Wall St in NYC and also a site in Jamaica were returned for inturnment at the river side (The Joseph Project) which was the place for "The Last Bath" for captured people b4 they arrived at the castle.
We proudly passed through the door of return!
We continued to the areas of the castle where the English resided. The first place that we came upon is the English church. A chapel situated above the dungeons. Thats right, their church was right on top of our ancestors dungeons.
Then on to the offices and quarters for the Brittish. I was amazed at the stark difference in atmosphere. I immediately wanted it as my studio. Whole walls of windows, wood floors big open spaces. Jesse did not want to go into the area.
This is one of the premier tourist spots in Ghana. It has been cleaned up and painted. It is where so many African Americans come to cry, rage and understand. I surprised myself as I did not have that experience so much. The areas for the women did touch me, but there was something that was a bit too staged about the site in it's current state that kept me from really feelin it. The fact that there were so many Ghanaian voyeurs around did not help. I felt that I wanted privacy (no such thing in Ghana, there are eyes everywhere!) to really feel. I disappointed myself as I wanted to cry, I wanted to rage and I wanted to wail and discharge.......pero nada.
posted by Caryl Henry-Alexander at 12:31 PM
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