The Door of No Return

Cape Coast Castle

I recently took a weekend trip to Cape Coast; a beautiful city located on the southern coast in the Central Region of Ghana.  This was the one place that I felt I needed to see before leaving Ghana. Cape Coast Castle, a World Heritage Site, is located on a major port that was a center of the African Slave Trade.  

The traditional name of the city is Oguaa, derived from the Fante word “gua” (market).  Because it’s safe port and harbor the area has long attracted traders from far and near who, for centuries, converged on the area to buy and sale wares. Some of the first exports from this port were timber and 

                                               gold -- hence the Colonial name for Ghana:  The Gold Coast. 

By the mid-1600’s  slaves had become a valuable commodity in the United States and the Caribbean and human beings became the principle “item” traded in Cape Coast.  This lasted until early 1800 after the British and the United States abolished international slave trading. 

Cape Coast Castle

Many of the people sold into slavery came from Western Africa.  At first only prisoners of war and criminals were sold into slavery.  Over time the crimes punishable by slavery became less and less severe.  Eventually, as salves became more valuable, “slave raids” took place in villages in order to supply the demand for slaves. In all, more than 70 million human beings were enslaved, nearly one third of the population of Western Africa at that time.

I took a guided tour of the Castle and it was, and remains, a haunting experience.  The tour starts with a light and airy talk about how under Colonial rule The Gold Coast (Ghana) was introduced to an educational system, Christianity (which is the dominate religion in Ghana today), a postal system, and hospitals.  Several good things happen during the British occupation. 

Then we go underneath the Castle to the men's dungeons.  These dungeons were excavated under the Castle for the express purpose of holding human beings for slave trade.  There are five small rooms built to hold male captives.  There were 20 of us on the tour and the unventilated, unlighted, small cave-like room quickly became claustrophobic.  

Francisco

Then our guide, Francisco, told us that each of these rooms held 200 men.

Men's Dungeon

At any one time there were up to 1,000 men crammed into these dungeon rooms; each kept there for up to 3 months.  Francisco said that an analysis of the floor in these rooms had been done by archeologists and the “floor” I was standing on was made up of the “sweat, blood, urine, feces, vomit, and pieces of the shackles which held these men.”

The floor

 The excavation for the analysis left a hollow in the floor that showed this “floor covering” was several centimeters deep.  

Women's holding cell

Then to the rooms that held the women.  There were two rooms that held up to 500 women.  They, unlike the men’s dungeons, were above ground but nearly equally dark and stuffy.  These above ground rooms made the women more “accessible” to the captors who had “left their wives” behind.  

There was also a “punishment room”.  If a slave tried to escape or a woman refused one of her captors they were thrown into this room.  The room was very small and had no light or ventilation.  The 20 of us crowded into this room and the door was shut.  The atmosphere quickly became overwhelmingly hot and suffocating.  A difference for us, the door reopened.  The men and women put into the “punishment room” where left there to die.

The Governor's Quarters

 We then toured the “Governor’s Quarters" which included

View from the Governor's Quarters

a large “receiving room”, a dining room, and a bedroom; all open air and light and all for one person.  These quarters, of course, were at the top of the Castle where the agonized cries of men and women, the stench, the rapes, the murders, and all the horror that was going on below could, conveniently, be ignored.

Many people did not survive to get out of the Castle.  Those who died were unceremoniously thrown into the sea for “fish food”.  Those who did survive this part of their ordeal, well, the torment had just begun. 

Art work in a local shop

When a ship was ready to load “cargo” the men and women were herded through a tunnel that led from the dungeons and holding cells straight to waiting boats. These boats would take them to a ship and the next part of their journey. 

Fishing Boats outside the Castle

As I stood there I tried to imagine the horror of what had taken place.  Most of these people probably had no idea what was happening.  They did not know, as they emerged from this tunnel, that this was the last time their feet would touch the land of their birth, the last time that they would breathe the air of their homeland, and the last                                                    time they would look upon the shores of Africa. 

These men and women had passed through “the door of no return”.  

The Door of No Return

I would like to end with the previous sentence.  That would make for a dramatic ending.  But Francisco did not end here.  He made an impassioned plea for us to pray for the individuals who had passed through this door and for all those still enslaved today.  He then said that even though slavery was now illegal all over the world we were all aware that slavery has not ended.  He mentioned human trafficking, the under-age sex trade, and domestic slavery and pleaded with us to become advocates for those still enslaved.

He ended with this, “As human beings some of us are in service to others.  That does not mean that we can treat those who serve us disrespectfully.   No human being is better than or worse than another.  Each human being on this planet is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect.”  

Amen, Francisco.