It is interesting that the place with the ugliest history has the most beautiful resort. Today we are in Cape Coast in a small fishing town called Elmina. We are staying in the Coconut Grove Beach Resort. It is so beautiful and right on the water. I feel as if I can’t completely appreciate it because it is down the street from the Elmina castle which was a major factor in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
BEFORE ELMINA
Now we are at Elmina slave castle. As I stand outside of the castle and hear the waves crashing I could imagine how the cool ocean water I enjoyed yesterday was scary and dangerous to my ancestors boarding the ships. The waves are strong and loud. Bigger than anything I have ever seen in Florida.
The under currant is forceful and silent. Yesterday, the waves took me back with a pull that incited a fear and panic that could only be consoled by the fact my comrades were close by. But there wasn’t anyone to dampen the fear in those who walked this beach over 400 years ago.
There are so many rocks. I imagine if someone was to fall off of the plank leading to the ship, the combination of the strong waves, the under tow, and the sharp rocks represented danger, fear, loss, confusion and death. The very opposite feelings that are desired to be produced in the visitors of the resort located a short distance from the dungeons. In describing the rocks that line the castle/dungeon, edifices feels like an accurate word. These sedimentary monuments are individual memorials. Large, small, various shades of brown, clumped together forming a line headed to the sea.
But they don’t move and haven’t moved for hundreds of years. So maybe they are symbols of Black bodies that marched towards the Atlantic, or rather spirits of those who came back… transmigrated…and will always be here.
Notes, thoughts, feelings during the Elmina tour
· In 1441 the Portuguese started capturing slave. A man named Antonio Gonzalez led the capturing. He wanted to capture the most intelligent Africans in order for them to be taught to be priest and missionaries in Portugal, then go back Ghana and other parts of Africa to “spread the gospel.” However, they weren’t sent back to Africa. They often became slaves in the Portuguese palace.
· 1510-1512 Bartolome de la Casa suggested Europeans used African for slavery in Spain and Hispaniola because African were immune to many of the disease killing other European slaves and Native Americans and African were doing similar kind of work in their native land.
If so, why does the Anglican Church revere him as a anti-racist and an advocate for the oppressed?
· The Portuguese came to Elmina in 1471
· In 1482, the Portuguese built the castle with the intent to house goods for trade (gold for example) but later only traded slaves.
· The Portuguese said they built the castle to house missionaries above, and store goods and human cargo below. Usually up to 400 women and 600 men. The castle was taken over by the Dutch in 1632, and the British in 1872
· Slaves brought to the castles came via three different ways because Europeans didn’t have the manpower to capture millions of African. 1) Europeans captured Africans themselves 2) Whites told/paid other Africans to gather other African (which was usually not from their own communities but from another community) 3) Africans decided themselves to capture other Africans (again from different nations) for profit.
· The Dutch mostly sent slaves to New York, the Portuguese sent most of their slaves to Brazil and the British (with the least amount of slaves) to the Americas.
· In 1700 Elmina’s economy was so closely tied to the slave trade that when the slave trade was abolished, Elmina’s fortunes declined
· 1807 British made slavery illegal but still traded illegally as well as the Dutch) during what is called “the illegal period” from 1814-1860…almost 50 more years
· Elmina is 526 years old. The Portuguese had it for 155 years, the Dutch for 235 and the English for 85.
· The cell for the drunken European soldiers is well ventilated and cool.
· Often times the soldiers would frequent the female dungeons
· The death cell for the slaves is dark, no window. They would not get food or water until they died. Live and dead bodies would sleep in the same cell
· What did it do to the psyche of those who threw Africans in the death cell and the ones who had to throw the dead bodies out?
· The Portuguese built a Catholic church in the center of the castle. The Dutch weren’t Catholic so they changed the old church into a trading center and built the new church over the female dungeon
· How can someone willing build a church (a place to worship God) over a room where women and children are knowingly being raped and killed? Did they not hear the screaming during service?
· The sign in the church says “Zion is the Lords’ resting place.” Where they praying to the say god? Christianity was in African before the slave trade. What were the Europeans praying for?
· The rocks are more that a 100 meters down. Elmina is built on those rocks.
· The rocks… the monuments, hold up the castle. The rocks…the monuments…
· We walked through the gift shop in the middle of the tour. Are you asking me, descendant of a sold human body, to bargain, purchase and trade in a place that was built for the sole purpose of bargaining and trading of indigenous African goods and humans?
· The sign “VISA, Mastercard, and American Express accepted here” and the gift shop is unnerving. Inappropriate. Erroneously placed. Sacrilegious. Disruption of space. Snaps you back into the present.
· Across the bridge from the castle are houses built by the Dutch to house their “African wives” and their children.
· The sections inhabited by the Europeans feels like a castle. A nice castle. Nice breeze.
· The governor stood on the balcony, overlooking a courtyard full of female slaves, and picked one to be raped. The only way a woman could get a decent meal and a bath was if she was chosen.
· African would spend 1-2 months without a bath and 100-150 in one dungeon. The disease, menstrual blood, vomit, fecal matter and other discharges stained the flood and walls.
· Some raped women became pregnant. Some became mistresses. If they became pregnant then they were “freed” which really meant they became concubines to the Dutch father and was his “African wife”. She could not return home which was often 100s of miles away.
· If a woman refused to have sex she was chained in the courtyard
· There was a hole for ventilation in the female dungeon but it led to the ammunition room. Gun powder air. What does that do to your lungs?
· Female dungeon still smells. It’s hard to describe. Like hot ammonia and some other things I can describe. It very strong, but not as strong as I had imagined. Not as bad as I thought. Thought it was going to smell like it did hundreds of years ago. Maybe roadkill. Skunk like smell, like during spring when all the rodents get hit back home. Smelled more like a cheap version of Mr. Clean. Hot ammonia. Still strong.
· The room of no return is small. . It contained women and children.
· Children under ten were paired with a woman. I wonder if they were paired with their own mother or were the selections random. What if the mother died, does the child get paired with a different woman? Can the woman adequately comfort the child when she is just as terrified, sick, and on the brink of insanity like the child? Did the child feel like a burden especially if the woman doesn’t have a child of her own and is also scared to death?
· The children often died. How did women bare watching their children die and not being able to do anything about it? Who did the most in the dungeons? The fathers didn’t have to see their children die. They were separate.
· Slaves were given “baptisms” which consisted of the slaves congregating in the courtyard and a priest saying a prayer while throwing buckets of water on the captives. What did the priest pray for? That not too many slaves die in the dungeon so that the governor can make the most money possible? Did the priest pray for the soliders and traders to have a safe journey during the middle passage? Did he ask for the human cargo to be content with slavery? Did the priest pray for the rapists? Did he ask for the captives to accept their fate and surrender to a white Jesus who holds their destiny in his hands? Did he pray for the African in the death chamber to the right of the governor balcony? Did they pray over the dying babies? I want to hear the prayers.
· 1510-1512 Bartolome de la Casa suggested Europeans used African for slavery in Spain and Hispaniola because African were immune to many of the disease killing other European slaves and Native Americans and African were doing similar kind of work in their native land.
If so, why does the Anglican Church revere him as a anti-racist and an advocate for the oppressed?
· The Portuguese came to Elmina in 1471
· In 1482, the Portuguese built the castle with the intent to house goods for trade (gold for example) but later only traded slaves.
· The Portuguese said they built the castle to house missionaries above, and store goods and human cargo below. Usually up to 400 women and 600 men. The castle was taken over by the Dutch in 1632, and the British in 1872
· Slaves brought to the castles came via three different ways because Europeans didn’t have the manpower to capture millions of African. 1) Europeans captured Africans themselves 2) Whites told/paid other Africans to gather other African (which was usually not from their own communities but from another community) 3) Africans decided themselves to capture other Africans (again from different nations) for profit.
· The Dutch mostly sent slaves to New York, the Portuguese sent most of their slaves to Brazil and the British (with the least amount of slaves) to the Americas.
· In 1700 Elmina’s economy was so closely tied to the slave trade that when the slave trade was abolished, Elmina’s fortunes declined
· 1807 British made slavery illegal but still traded illegally as well as the Dutch) during what is called “the illegal period” from 1814-1860…almost 50 more years
· Elmina is 526 years old. The Portuguese had it for 155 years, the Dutch for 235 and the English for 85.
· The cell for the drunken European soldiers is well ventilated and cool.
· Often times the soldiers would frequent the female dungeons
· The death cell for the slaves is dark, no window. They would not get food or water until they died. Live and dead bodies would sleep in the same cell
· What did it do to the psyche of those who threw Africans in the death cell and the ones who had to throw the dead bodies out?
· The Portuguese built a Catholic church in the center of the castle. The Dutch weren’t Catholic so they changed the old church into a trading center and built the new church over the female dungeon
· How can someone willing build a church (a place to worship God) over a room where women and children are knowingly being raped and killed? Did they not hear the screaming during service?
· The sign in the church says “Zion is the Lords’ resting place.” Where they praying to the say god? Christianity was in African before the slave trade. What were the Europeans praying for?
· The rocks are more that a 100 meters down. Elmina is built on those rocks.
· The rocks… the monuments, hold up the castle. The rocks…the monuments…
· We walked through the gift shop in the middle of the tour. Are you asking me, descendant of a sold human body, to bargain, purchase and trade in a place that was built for the sole purpose of bargaining and trading of indigenous African goods and humans?
· The sign “VISA, Mastercard, and American Express accepted here” and the gift shop is unnerving. Inappropriate. Erroneously placed. Sacrilegious. Disruption of space. Snaps you back into the present.
· Across the bridge from the castle are houses built by the Dutch to house their “African wives” and their children.
· The sections inhabited by the Europeans feels like a castle. A nice castle. Nice breeze.
· The governor stood on the balcony, overlooking a courtyard full of female slaves, and picked one to be raped. The only way a woman could get a decent meal and a bath was if she was chosen.
· African would spend 1-2 months without a bath and 100-150 in one dungeon. The disease, menstrual blood, vomit, fecal matter and other discharges stained the flood and walls.
· Some raped women became pregnant. Some became mistresses. If they became pregnant then they were “freed” which really meant they became concubines to the Dutch father and was his “African wife”. She could not return home which was often 100s of miles away.
· If a woman refused to have sex she was chained in the courtyard
· There was a hole for ventilation in the female dungeon but it led to the ammunition room. Gun powder air. What does that do to your lungs?
· Female dungeon still smells. It’s hard to describe. Like hot ammonia and some other things I can describe. It very strong, but not as strong as I had imagined. Not as bad as I thought. Thought it was going to smell like it did hundreds of years ago. Maybe roadkill. Skunk like smell, like during spring when all the rodents get hit back home. Smelled more like a cheap version of Mr. Clean. Hot ammonia. Still strong.
· The room of no return is small. . It contained women and children.
· Children under ten were paired with a woman. I wonder if they were paired with their own mother or were the selections random. What if the mother died, does the child get paired with a different woman? Can the woman adequately comfort the child when she is just as terrified, sick, and on the brink of insanity like the child? Did the child feel like a burden especially if the woman doesn’t have a child of her own and is also scared to death?
· The children often died. How did women bare watching their children die and not being able to do anything about it? Who did the most in the dungeons? The fathers didn’t have to see their children die. They were separate.
· Slaves were given “baptisms” which consisted of the slaves congregating in the courtyard and a priest saying a prayer while throwing buckets of water on the captives. What did the priest pray for? That not too many slaves die in the dungeon so that the governor can make the most money possible? Did the priest pray for the soliders and traders to have a safe journey during the middle passage? Did he ask for the human cargo to be content with slavery? Did the priest pray for the rapists? Did he ask for the captives to accept their fate and surrender to a white Jesus who holds their destiny in his hands? Did he pray for the African in the death chamber to the right of the governor balcony? Did they pray over the dying babies? I want to hear the prayers.
Courtyard where women who didn't sleep with the governor were chained.
Female slave dungeon. It is known for still having a very strong smell from the years of fecal matter, rotting flesh, menstral blood, urine and other bodily fluids that women had to live in for months.
Window for ventilation. It led to the amunition room.
The governor's chamber. It was very spacious and really nice. It was when I was in the European sections of the castle the the place felt like a castle.
The view from the governors room. He could watch the ships full og human cargo leave for the Americas.
Views from the governor's windows
Another view of the courtyard
Walking to the dungeon
Another dungeon
The fishing town around Elmina
The dinning hall for the Europeans (first the portugeuse had the castle then the Dutch, then the British)
This is the scripture the dutch put up in their church. The Dutch moved the church from the center of the courtyard to over the female slave dungeon. How can you have church when women and children were dying just below? When women were getting raped just under the floor of the church?
Window from the soliders' holding cell when they got too drunk. It was welll ventilated and not very dark.
To the left of it was the death chamber
I didn't take any pictures inside. This is where slaves where left to die. Live bodies had to live and sleep with dead bodies. The place was dark and not ventilated. It serve as a scare tactic for the living slaves.
On the roof.
On the roof.
The female slave dungeon is at the top to the right of the governors quarters. The male slave dungeon is to the right.
The Portuguese church and courtyard from the governor's balcony where he choose female slaves.
It was a weird mixture of a place of death with a beautiful view
The room was very dark.
The room with a flash. The slope used to be wooden stairs
The last room with the door of no return. The door was small to make sure the women came out to the ship one at at time and could be easily counted.
The last view before the door was open.
After the Elmina tour
Contemplating on how today I can go in and out of the castle as I please and sit on the beach as I please but those who came in and out of the castle couldn't. And remembering here is where many of those who died in the castle where tossed out on this very beach.
I don’t know what to say. Numb. Full and empty. Scared and safe. Confused yet certain. Privileged yet humble. Sad but not tearful. 
A teacher told me the we, Black Americans, should be not be ashamed of being descendants of slaves because it was the strongest that survived the coffles. The strongest that survive the dungeons. The strongest that survived the Middle Passage. The strongest that survived seasoning. It was the strongest that survived their children, wives, husbands, mothers, sisters, brothers, being sold off, hung, gibbeted, burned to death, whipped, beaten, and raped in front of them. It was the strongest that made me.
I wanted something to take back from Elmina. I couldn’t move myself to buy something in a place that was built as a center for bartering and trading, but I wanted something other than the pictures I had taken. So I collected seashells on the last piece of African soil many of my ancestors touched.
I wanted something to take back from Elmina. I couldn’t move myself to buy something in a place that was built as a center for bartering and trading, but I wanted something other than the pictures I had taken. So I collected seashells on the last piece of African soil many of my ancestors touched.
As I picked up seashells I found a damaged one that had probably been tossed against the rocks and other shells so much that large ingrained crevasses marked the surface. I was about to throw it back down. Then a thought about the many African women whose physical and emotional abuse left indelible marks on their minds, hearts and bodies. I kept it.
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