Cape Coast Slave Castle

Cape Coast …. was beautiful, moving, depressing, heart-wrenching, impacting, but … mostly heavy with emotion. We visited the Cape Coast slave caste. Let me just start by saying reading about it in a textbook does not do it justice, but by being physically there and feeling the tangible evidence brings the cold hard facts to life.

When we got there the castle is set on the coast with the waves crashing in all around the castle, a completely beautiful view. There were cannons surrounding the castle to ward off enemy ships. I tried to lift a cannon ball and I couldn’t lift it, it was so heavy. You had to pay in order to take photos which I had no problem doing. I figured it a mere sliver of my own contributions for all the injustices that were once harnessed on these grounds. On the first part of our tour we went into the male slave chambers. They chambers were made out of concrete and stone and had only 3 slivers of windows incredibly high up. This only allowed sunlight about the size of what you would find coming from underneath a door.

After 2 minutes of being in this chamber I had a bead of sweat down my neck and forehead. There were only about 35 of us in the chambers that had held thousands. I just can’t imagine how hot it must have been considering the heat I felt with just a small group. The slaves were shackled by hands, feet and even neck and were only allowed the space their feet or butt sat, next to hundreds of others. There was a small drainage line in the floor that was about 3 inches deep with hopes of draining feces and urine. However it did very little. When they closed down the slave castle they had a foot of feces and dead bodies to clean out before it was re-open to the public. Can you imagine that?

We moved on and saw the female slave quarters the exact same as the male. Right next to the female slave quarters was a door that led to the ocean and was called the “Door of No Return.” This was the door that slaves were taken to board the slave ships and was the last glimpse of Africa that they all saw. In these slave ships, the slaves were packed like sardines and normally hundreds died and were thrown overboard.

The hardest room for me to be in was a room called “The Cell” in which misbehaving slaves would go to; sent to their death. It was a very small room where 100s of slaves would be in which was even hotter than the other slave chambers. The slaves would all die of lack of oxygen because there were no windows. I can’t imagine being sent to that room for misbehaving. In which that probably meant you were trying to escape from the torture you were held under. Only to in turn be thrown into this room, ultimately ending your life and watching your fellow Africans around you defecate themselves to death.

We got to tour the British quarters which were very nice and had enormous space to sleep in with a beautiful view. (Just don’t forget to ignore all the moaning slaves below your feet … I could never sleep under those conditions) The most impacting thing to me was that the British church was located right above the male slave chambers.

When slavery was abolished, the cape coast slave castle blocked off the tunnel that led the slaves to the “Door of No Return.” This marked a symbol to the end of slavery. Now on one end they had an alter where they imitate (for the tourists) ancient ancestry religion symbolic for all those Africans who lost their lives. Now on the “Door of No Return” is a sign that reads “Door of Return” indicating that Africa is making their own return from this horrific mark in history. This sign hangs on the other side of the door that says “Door of No Return” as if you were walking back from the ocean.

This trip by far was exactly what I came to experience here in Ghana. I wanted to feel with my heart the pain and to see with my eyes the hurt. I still yearn to understand how things like this could ever happen … how humankind can make this okay.

It is this quote that was found in the museum of African’s history that was located in the castle that I will leave you with as my last thoughts …

“No one knows when the hour of African’s redemption cometh. It is in the wind, it is coming. One day like a storm it will be here. When that day comes, all Africa will stand together.”

~Stacie~