This past weekend our group took a weekend trip to the lovely Cape Coast region, located along the central coast of Ghana about three hours west of Accra. This portion of Ghana was known as the Gold Coast during British colonial rule; however, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in 1471 and built the first and largest “castle” to become a part of transatlantic slave trade in the town of Elmina in 1482. The Elmina and Cape Coast castles we visited were just part of a system of hundreds of such places in Africa utilized by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British in the transatlantic slave trade between the late 1400’s and late 1800’s as trading continued illegally after slave trade was officially abolished in 1814.

It’s hard to describe the experience of visiting the most horrendous places I have ever been. I’m not sure the correct words to describe the emotions I felt while standing in a claustrophobic, dark, hot, sticky space with a stench that lingers from the urine, feces, vomit, sweat and blood of millions of enslaved Africans who were shackled and crammed into the space with hundreds of other innocent beings, all over a near four hundred year period. Most of these millions of people had already survived a torturous, long journey to this space and then spent up to three months in captivity here with not light, water or sanitation. If they survived this lethal place, they were shipped off in even more atrocious conditions. I can say I felt a deep sadness knowing I was standing in spaces where so many fellow humans suffered such revolting and unnecessary brutality as well as a gut-wrenching discomfort knowing that I was walking on the remnants of their bodies.

There were multiple times I shed tears walking in these places. I was especially struck in the female dungeons. Female slaves faced the added torture of regular sexual assault and rape from the soldiers and governor of the fortress. In Elmina, the governor’s spacious, airy quarters (which was as large as the dungeons used to house 400 women and girls) was placed above the female’s dungeons so that he could stand on his balcony to look down as the women were lined up below so he could choose which of the women would be washed and brought up to his quarters through a special back staircase to be raped. If any of the women resisted the soldiers, they were punished through confinement in a smaller, dark cell without food or water or by being chained to a heavy cannon ball in the courtyard area in the sun without food or water. If the women became pregnant, there was a chance they would be moved out of the dungeon to a house to be a “mistress slave” to the white assaulter. There was also a chance she would be removed from the dungeon to have the baby just to be torn away from her child and returned. And, if it was discovered a woman was pregnant during the voyage to the Americas, she would likely be thrown overboard to the sharks as slave buyers would not be interested in purchasing a female slave who was pregnant. I attempted to put myself in the place of these women, and even my feeble effort at imagining the suffering of enduring the horrible conditions in the dungeons and the utter disgust, fear, rage and helplessness to watch and listen to my mother, cousins, and friends be assaulted and killed was almost overwhelming.

After our visit to the first of the two castles, our group held a meaningful discussion to reflect on our thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the visit. I am thankful to be with a wonderful group of people who were open and comfortable enough to share their diverse perspectives and thoughts from the visit as this enriched my own processing of this atrocious place and intense experience.

While these visits were heart wrenching and immensely uncomfortable, I am glad to have had the powerful experience. It is important for societies to face their actions and the consequences of those actions. If more people were forced to feel this disgust and discomfort, perhaps it would help bring about needed conversations and changes today. In 2019, many people look at slavery as this long ago phenomenon that doesn’t merit present attention. Not only is this untrue due to the fact that slavery still exists in various forms around the world, including the U.S., but also because of the major contemporary ramifications of this era of slavery. Africa is in the poor economic state it is in due to the centuries of colonial exploitation and significant loss of its population. African Americans continue to be systemically disadvantaged through discrimination, poor education and health care access, police brutality, disenfranchisement and gratuitous rates of incarceration in U.S. prisons. The effect of these awful places lingers.

At the end of the visits, we made a vow which is also engraved on plaques hanging at the castles: “Of the anguish of our ancestors, may those who died rest in peace. May those who return to find their roots. May humanity never again perpetrate such injustice against humanity. We the living, vow to uphold this.”

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