BECA Travels: Forest Canopy and Slave Castle
Forest Canopy and Slave Castle
The Ko-Sa resort is on the Atlantic coast between the towns of Cape Coast and Elmina. On Monday, we piled into another "tro-tro" - this time without luggage - and went first to nearby Kalem National Park, noted for its canopy walk. The park museum had an exhibit that illustrated the amount of rainforest that covered Africa only a short time ago (15 years perhaps?) and the comparatively small proportion of that rainforest left. Kalem Park preserves some of that rainforest. In the park, above the forest canopy, are rope "walkways" that allow you to walk above the canopy. These walkways have wood planks - roughly 14" wide - at the bottom, and the sides - roughly 3-4 feet high - are made of woven rope. The guide said that at any one time, while walking on this walkways, you are between 300 and 800 meters from the forest floor. As one might imagine, the walkways sway, but they are quite safe, as the guide demonstrated, by deliberately throwing himself into the sides of the walkways. We walked on the walkways - probably eight to ten segments that stretched from one secure "rest area" surrounding a tree to another - and the experience was truly awe-inspiring. Although we didn't see any animals (a big group of British teenagers, who were quite loud and thought it was funny to shake the walkways, made too much noise to allow the animals to appear), it was an amazing experience.
From there, we drove to Cape Coast, known for its slave castle. Ghana was a major contributor to the slave trade, collecting potential slaves from much of West Africa, penning them up in Ghana, and storing them until ships took them to the Caribbean, where they were sold. Although Portugal was the major player in the Ghanaian slave trade, the castle in Cape Coast was built by the British. It is a huge, whitewashed, ugly stone building along the coast. The slave quarters are underground. Men and women were branded like cattle and stored separately, each in chambers of 150 people with openings high on the walls to allow air and a bit of light to enter the chambers. In the men's chambers were small "canals" (4" wide) that allowed urine and feces to move out of the chambers, as the men used the floor for sleeping, sitting and bodily functions. They were kept in chains, and were brought out into the center grounds twice a day to eat. The men who acted out were put in an air-tight chamber - 5 or 6 at a time - and not fed. They died within two days.
The women's quarters lacked the "irrigation system" for human waste that the men's quarters had, so the floors of their chambers were cleaned regularly. Similarly, the women were brought out twice a day to be fed. The women who acted out - which for women generally translated into refusing to have sex with the soldiers - were punished by being put into a chamber with a small amount of air and light. They were fed once a day, and were released back into the slave chambers after a week, apparently sufficiently chastised. Those women who were pregnant were taken out of the slave chambers to have their babies, and were allowed to care for them for up to three months. At that point, the babies were adopted by families in Cape Coast. These mulatto children and their descendants have become the elite of Cape Coast. The mothers were returned to the slave quarters and, if their destined ship had sailed, they were re-branded and sent on another ship.
There was a tunnel that led from the slave chambers to the "door of no return," or the door that led to the boats that took the slaves to the slave ships. The tunnel was plugged at the time the slave trade ended in 1836, but parts of it have been re-opened so visitors to the castle can see the nature of the tunnels. On the ocean side of the "door of no return," the door was recently labeled, the "door of return," signifying a welcome back to Africa for those descendants of slaves who visit the castle.
The British governor's residence - an ample space for a single man or a couple - and a large, ceremonial dining room - are on an upper floor of the castle, overlooking the grounds. Next to it is a chapel, built for the soldiers guarding the slaves. (As if to recognize the incongruity of a chapel for the jailer-torturers, the chapel has been turned into a children's library, and is open and free to children in the Cape Coast community.) The soldiers' quarters are on the ground floor; they are now occupied by souvenir vendors. Along the ocean side of the castle is a row of cannons pointing out toward the ocean.
President Obama's first international trip after his inauguration was to Ghana. It turns out that Michelle Obama can trace her family back to the Cape Coast slave castle. For that reason, there is a plaque at the castle acknowledging the visit of President and Mrs. Obama in 2009. Quite close to that plaque is another, the gift of chiefs from the various tribes in Ghana, expressing remorse for the role of the chiefs in supporting the slave trade, and imploring humanity to make sure such crimes never occur again.
My description does scant justice to the experience of visiting a slave castle. It is truly disturbing. Several of the students commented that they sensed the presence of the spirits of the people who were imprisoned there. We were all grateful for the opportunity to see the castle firsthand.
The Ko-Sa resort is on the Atlantic coast between the towns of Cape Coast and Elmina. On Monday, we piled into another "tro-tro" - this time without luggage - and went first to nearby Kalem National Park, noted for its canopy walk. The park museum had an exhibit that illustrated the amount of rainforest that covered Africa only a short time ago (15 years perhaps?) and the comparatively small proportion of that rainforest left. Kalem Park preserves some of that rainforest. In the park, above the forest canopy, are rope "walkways" that allow you to walk above the canopy. These walkways have wood planks - roughly 14" wide - at the bottom, and the sides - roughly 3-4 feet high - are made of woven rope. The guide said that at any one time, while walking on this walkways, you are between 300 and 800 meters from the forest floor. As one might imagine, the walkways sway, but they are quite safe, as the guide demonstrated, by deliberately throwing himself into the sides of the walkways. We walked on the walkways - probably eight to ten segments that stretched from one secure "rest area" surrounding a tree to another - and the experience was truly awe-inspiring. Although we didn't see any animals (a big group of British teenagers, who were quite loud and thought it was funny to shake the walkways, made too much noise to allow the animals to appear), it was an amazing experience.
From there, we drove to Cape Coast, known for its slave castle. Ghana was a major contributor to the slave trade, collecting potential slaves from much of West Africa, penning them up in Ghana, and storing them until ships took them to the Caribbean, where they were sold. Although Portugal was the major player in the Ghanaian slave trade, the castle in Cape Coast was built by the British. It is a huge, whitewashed, ugly stone building along the coast. The slave quarters are underground. Men and women were branded like cattle and stored separately, each in chambers of 150 people with openings high on the walls to allow air and a bit of light to enter the chambers. In the men's chambers were small "canals" (4" wide) that allowed urine and feces to move out of the chambers, as the men used the floor for sleeping, sitting and bodily functions. They were kept in chains, and were brought out into the center grounds twice a day to eat. The men who acted out were put in an air-tight chamber - 5 or 6 at a time - and not fed. They died within two days.
The women's quarters lacked the "irrigation system" for human waste that the men's quarters had, so the floors of their chambers were cleaned regularly. Similarly, the women were brought out twice a day to be fed. The women who acted out - which for women generally translated into refusing to have sex with the soldiers - were punished by being put into a chamber with a small amount of air and light. They were fed once a day, and were released back into the slave chambers after a week, apparently sufficiently chastised. Those women who were pregnant were taken out of the slave chambers to have their babies, and were allowed to care for them for up to three months. At that point, the babies were adopted by families in Cape Coast. These mulatto children and their descendants have become the elite of Cape Coast. The mothers were returned to the slave quarters and, if their destined ship had sailed, they were re-branded and sent on another ship.
There was a tunnel that led from the slave chambers to the "door of no return," or the door that led to the boats that took the slaves to the slave ships. The tunnel was plugged at the time the slave trade ended in 1836, but parts of it have been re-opened so visitors to the castle can see the nature of the tunnels. On the ocean side of the "door of no return," the door was recently labeled, the "door of return," signifying a welcome back to Africa for those descendants of slaves who visit the castle.
The British governor's residence - an ample space for a single man or a couple - and a large, ceremonial dining room - are on an upper floor of the castle, overlooking the grounds. Next to it is a chapel, built for the soldiers guarding the slaves. (As if to recognize the incongruity of a chapel for the jailer-torturers, the chapel has been turned into a children's library, and is open and free to children in the Cape Coast community.) The soldiers' quarters are on the ground floor; they are now occupied by souvenir vendors. Along the ocean side of the castle is a row of cannons pointing out toward the ocean.
President Obama's first international trip after his inauguration was to Ghana. It turns out that Michelle Obama can trace her family back to the Cape Coast slave castle. For that reason, there is a plaque at the castle acknowledging the visit of President and Mrs. Obama in 2009. Quite close to that plaque is another, the gift of chiefs from the various tribes in Ghana, expressing remorse for the role of the chiefs in supporting the slave trade, and imploring humanity to make sure such crimes never occur again.
My description does scant justice to the experience of visiting a slave castle. It is truly disturbing. Several of the students commented that they sensed the presence of the spirits of the people who were imprisoned there. We were all grateful for the opportunity to see the castle firsthand.
posted by Betsy J. Blosser at
7/01/2012 04:25:00 PM
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