Our group inside a dungeon at Elmina Castle
Our group inside a dungeon at Elmina Castle

Most of us have some sense of the atrocities that defined the transatlantic slave trade. However, nothing can prepare you for the experience of retracing the footsteps of African slaves through dark dungeons.  These chambers held as many as 400 chained captives for several months at a time in cramped spaces with limited ventilation. Disoriented and demoralized, prisoners had no choice but to stomach the stench. Those who survived disease took their final steps on this continent through the “Door of No Return.”

Our guide closed us inside as he described the severity of what took place here.
Our guide closed us inside as he described the severity of what took place here.

I grasp for but fail to find appropriate language to convey what you feel when you walk through these halls. The words “tour” and “visit” are ill-suited, given the crimes. As an African-American, this experience holds a deep and special meaning. Our group maintained a mood of solemn silence, but there was a whisper of my ancestors’ essence in the air.

This is the second time I have entered these chambers, and the experience is just as powerful as it was when I came five years ago. I am still at a loss as I attempt to write about it. Typing, reflecting, deleting, and retyping––I’m struggling with words and phrasing to find my usual sense of flow.

Our guide from outside looking in.
Our guide from outside looking in.

Transatlantic slave trade history is complicated. African chiefs were to some degree complicit in bartering human lives for firearms and textiles. Before the Europeans came, it was customary for the victors of tribal wars to enslave the defeated. Yet, it is generally agreed that slavery among Africans was more akin to indentured servitude––lacking cruel and brutal punishment. Historians believe that Africans who aided the Europeans had little knowledge of what happened behind these castle walls.

Standing outside one of the cells.
Standing outside one of the cells.

The Portuguese built Elmina Castle on the coast of Ghana in 1482 as a trading post for gold, textiles, and beads. By the seventeenth century, Europeans dominated the region and shifted their focus to trading goods for slaves. The Dutch seized the Castle in from the Portuguese 1637 and trafficked slaves here until 1814. The British had abolished slavery seven years earlier.  They took control of the Castle from the Dutch in 1872, and held it until Ghana achieved independence in 1957.

A little known fact is the role of organized religion in the history of slave trade castles. From inception, the Portuguese erected a church in the courtyard of Elmina Castle. A governor’s quarters and guest rooms for missionaries and priests were above the women’s dungeons. Surely they could hear the cries of misery from below as they dined and prayed.

This is where words completely fail me. In this moment, there is nothing more I can say.

The church that stands in the Castle's courtyard, since converted into a museum.
The church that stands in the Castle’s courtyard, since converted into a museum.