Ghana's Slave Castles
Cape Coast Castle, one of the largest and best preserved slave forts on the coast of Africa.
Osu Castle, a former slave trading fort as well as the seat of British Colonial rule in Ghana, is now the office of the country's presidents.
A few interesting (and haunting) things about the slave castles, giant forts built by the Europeans to protect their slave trading dominions along the coast of West Africa:
The forts were built more to defend against rival European powers (the Dutch, Portuguese, English, French and Danish were all active along Ghana's coast at various points in time).
To stamp out insurrectionist sentiment, the Europeans locked up uncooperative slaves in a dungeon, where they would be left without food or water until they died. The corpses were not removed until the last person had died. You can still see scratch marks where dying slaves attempted in vain to claw their way out of the dark cells. Naturally other slaves were employed to remove the dead bodies. The message got through, I've no doubt.
Slaves were purchased from local traders primarily in exchange for rifles. Using these arms, the slave raiders would have little trouble overcoming villages in the interior to capture more slaves.
In both of the slave castles we visited, Elmina and Cape Coast, the primary slave dungeon are located directly beneath the forts' chapels. Indeed, the first Christian church in Ghana is the chapel above the Elmina slave dungeon.
In Elmina, the governor had a special viewing balcony that allowed him to pick out the most beautiful slave girls and bring them up through a private staircase through a trap door to his bedroom.
Labels: Ghana, slavery, West Africa
posted by Ryan Petersen @ 11:42 AM
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