Elmina Castle

After checking into the hotel we ventured out to visit Elmina Castle.  During the the years of slave trading, Elmina Castle held over 1000 men and women awaiting sale and transport.

Our tour guide was wonderful.  The stories told were difficult to hear and even harder to imagine.

 As soon as we entered the courtyard we sent to the "church" to view some exhibits while waiting for our tour.  This building was once a church, built by the Portuguese.  Once the slave trading began, the church was re-purposed.  The church styled roof removed and a second floor built to provide more usable space.

 This is Kathy and our guide.  I appreciated the time taken to explain the history, to identify fact and challenge myths.  On of the most interesting comments related to the success of the slave trade and the fact that the Europeans couldn't do this alone.  Africans were involved in the trade.  It has been said that African people sold their brothers and sisters into slavery.  Our guide clarified this and I was grateful.  Families did not sell their families, brothers/sisters did not sell their brothers/sisters.  There were many tribes of people and with tribes comes loyalty within and rivalry with other tribes.  

 Our first stop was the female slave dungeon.  400 women were held in rooms surrounding a courtyard.   Women lived 100-200 in a room.  They could be there for months.  Living in filth (excrement), fed enough to keep them alive.  Although many did not survive. 

The Governor of the castle would have the women gather in the courtyard and would have his pick.  Once chosen the woman would be stripped and cleaned by a group of soldiers.  She would be dressed and sent up to the Governor.  After he was "finished" with her, she would be "had" by soldiers before being returned to the cells.  Women who were seen as "trouble", those who refused to go to the governor or refused the advances of the soldiers would be shackled to a canon ball in the courtyard and left there for days in heat, in rain, with no food.

This is the well in the courtyard, water was taken from here to wash the "chosen" for their meeting with the Governor.

 This is the back stairway where the women were sent to meet with the Governor.

The view of the courtyard from the balcony...

This group of students are standing on the balcony.

We left the female dungeon and then went to holding cells off the main courtyard.  The first was a drunk tank for unruly soldiers...although small and unpleasant, it was well ventilated.

 The neighboring cell was for male slaves who resisted or caused trouble.  This cell had no light, no ventilation.  Men were left here until dead.  Others would be added.  Many men awaited their deaths among the dead.

 This is the men's dungeon.  The other end of this room leads to the holding area and point of no return.  The "point of no return" is the gate in which people left the castle, boarding the slave ships.  This young man visited the point of no return and is returning, unlike thousands of his ancestors.

 The point of no return...once slaves crossed this threshold, they would never again see their loved ones.  Many couples/families were captured and upon entering the castle separated by sex.

 A few more shots from within the castle.

 This is taken from on top of the wall of the castle.  

Views of the village from the castle.

This was a moving and emotional visit.  I am appalled by what I heard and saw.  I am outraged at the atrocities that we as human beings commit against other human beings.  One would think that as a world we would learn from these things and treat people as people and yet the brutality and injustice continues.