A brief report on my visit to Elmina and Cape Coast Slave Castles in Ghana

Elmina Castle was built by the Portuguese in 1482 initially to trade in goods as opposed to people. I was struck by the fact that a church stood in the middle of the castle and that religion played such a prominent role in the slave trade, cheek by jowl(the Church owned slaves on plantations in the West Indies. At Elmina church services were held above the dungeons that housed the slaves. I moved though the castle listening to the tales of physical and sexual abuse (rape) foisted on a people held captive until encountering the Gate of No Return, where slaves boarded the waiting ships, something moved inside me. This was the point of severance. It was made deliberately small as some slaves leapt into the sea and drowned rather than board the ships taking them away from Africa – choosing death rather than separation.

The scene at Elmina was somewhat incongruous because our visit coincided with the Bakatue Festival which is a pretty lively and fun affair, with huge crowds (a bit like Notting Hill Carnival). The Bakatue or (Fish Harvesting) consists of a royal procession of chiefs and stool holders riding palanquins through the main streets to a sacred shrine where chiefs pour libation and sprinkle sacred food. It heralds the opening of the fishing season following the ban on fishing, and features the ceremonial scooping of the lagoon with a net, after which permission is given to fishermen to fish. We're talking serious bling here, with chiefs draped with gold and fine clothes; it is a very impressive and imposing sight. I was having a digital camera malfunction and my battery was almost dead. I only managed to get a few pictures from afar, I couldn't get close to the chiefs, as people danced in the streets, music blared, and men in multi-coloured costumes walked on stilts, it reminded me of Trinidad carnival. Actually, I will add that if you want to see the origins of carnival go to West Africa.

Cape Coast Castle:

Unlike Elmina, Cape Coast Castle was built by the British specifically to house slaves. What you don't get in the pictures is a sense of how dark and dank the dungeons are and hot, and despite the centuries that have elapsed, the funny smell. There would be little point in me trying to imagine what the conditions must have been like with about 300 hundred people shackled in them, even emptied and clean the dungeons are revolting. At one point they closed the doors and you could hardly see a thing, the air was also quite stale and that was with only with a few of us in them. Slaves were held for up to 3 months in the dungeons depending on the availability of ships, packed in shoulder to shoulder, given little food and water, they were quite literally left to wallow in their own filth, for 3 months this is where they lived - slept, ate, defecated, and died, one can only guess at the attrition rate.

I am not at all squeamish but I felt very uncomfortable when our guide pointed out that what we were walking on was not the brick floor of the dungeon but a thick stone-like crust on top of it, made up of layer upon layer of compacted faeces (excrement), blood and human remains (slaves that died were literally left to rot); this had been trodden on by the slaves over the years and had become rock hard. In some of the pictures you can see where the dungeon has been excavated exposing the brick floor. Thereafter I felt uneasy with every step, continually glancing at my feet as I walked over this compacted matter and was very much relieved to be out of it. However when I emerged from the gloom of the male dungeon and into the air and light, I initially thought I was going to cry, felt the tears welling up inside me but suddenly I just became very angry.

Those who survived the Slave castles then faced the Middle Passage, crossing the Atlantic and exposure to more misery and death. It is said that the difference between the Holocaust and the Slave Trade is that there was no intention to kill or exterminate the slaves. As far as I'm concerned that is merely semantics. I got a distinct sense that not only was the welfare of the slaves not a matter of concern for the traders but that the conditions were as such that survival was simply a matter of luck and the indomitable spirit of our ancestors. This was further evidenced by the use of the death cells for those who transgressed and offered the greatest challenges to authority. They were shut into this airless, lightless room, with no food or water and left to die. The marks on the stone walls and floor of the death cell were made by slaves as they clawed with their fingernails in distress. The slavers made best use of the technology of their day as did the Nazis; if the slavers had gas at their disposal they would have used it.

The Slave Trade remains an issue that has yet to be properly addressed; I also need to mention that the enslavement of Africans would not be possible without the collusion of Africans. This was my first visit to West Africa and I couldn't help but see the dietary, social and cultural similarities with the Caribbean, between the Africans in Africa and those in the Diaspora. I became even more interested in the disconnect, the fact that there is such fear and loathing between us. The links were so obvious to me; this is where our origins lie, our story begins, our history starts; not the new world and not the 400 year period of chattel slavery.

The Castles are monuments to an unbridled savagery but I also see them as a having a positive story, resistance and triumph in the face of adversity - we survived against the odds and if we survived the Slave castles and the Middle Passage we can survive anything.

I would urge everyone to try to make the trip not only to the Slave Castles but to see the country as well.