A Humbling Perspective on My Traveler’s Sickness

By Karis Frazier

Three days into my Ghana adventure I fell sick from something, whether it was accidentally getting a drink with ice, too much jollof, or an incidental bacteria intake, I was out for the next three days. It was a huge mental block for me. For most of the three days, I felt sorry for myself. I pitied myself for not being able to try the new and exciting food because it would just come right back up. That perspective changed for me when we went on our trip to Cape Coast.

We started our weekend trip off with a tour of Elmina Castle. Elmina Castle was erected by the Portuguese in 1482. It was first a trading post for goods and then transitioned into holding hundreds of enslaved people during the transatlantic slave trade. Our guide Ato Ashun walked us through the castle pointing out each extremely inhumane tactic the traders used on the enslaved people.

I stood in the women’s slave dungeon still feeling sick to my stomach, but instantly feeling unworthy of that feeling after seeing the conditions that these women lived through, although the percentage of them that went on to live outside of the castle was low. Each aspect of the dungeons and the castle itself shed a horrific light on the lives of these enslaved people, some taken from their homes in Ghana, others taken from all over West Africa.

Hundreds of enslaved Africans were brought into the castle, separated by gender, children and adults the same. We first saw the women’s slave dungeon where they sat rotting in their menstrual cycles, separated from their families with little to no food and barely any light. They would be brought out of the dungeon only to be used in sexual ways by the men that enslaved them, or to go through the Door of No Return.

The Door of No Return was the last step in ensuring that the enslaved Africans would never return to their homes. There was an entrance from both the men’s and women’s dungeons that lead straight to the door. The door goes directly to the port and looks out on the Atlantic Ocean. I wish that I could clearly describe the emotions I felt standing in that room but I’m not sure how. Surrounding the door were wreaths that people had brought back to the castle in honor of their ancestors. Several of the wreaths had messages, one of them particularly struck me; “To our beloved ancestors. We made it home!!!”

The emotions that visiting the castle brought to me were emotions that I wish could be brought up all over the world when teaching on the transatlantic slave trade. Growing up in the U.S., I was taught about the slave trade but never in this manner. The hardships and terrors that these people endured were not focused on enough in the school curriculums, especially in relation to how slavery in the U.S. impacted Black culture and how it is reflected in today’s society.

The one week I have spent in Ghana has been incredible. I have been treated with immense kindness and there is no end in sight of new things to learn about Ghanaian culture. Along with all the positives of visiting this country is the always devastating weight of its past. I hope that reading this post will strike some thoughts of what these enslaved people went through and that we acknowledge what happened, agreeing to never let it happen again.