Elmina Slave Castle

I stood in the same dark cave where many women stood 150 years ago and hoped to die. My fingertips pressed against the same walls where they clawed the musty concrete trying to stay in the dungeon filled with months of feces, urine, vomit, and menstrual blood. The stagnant air inside the cave still smells vile. The slave trade was something everyone studied during history class, but standing inside the slave castles was a different lesson.

In the center of the four dungeons that held the women was a small courtyard. Above it, a second level with a catwalk that led to the general’s bedroom. The women were brought into the courtyard where the general walked along the catwalk to select the woman he wanted to rape. The soldiers then washed the months of filth from the woman’s body. Once suitable, she would be led up a stairway to the bedroom to be raped. The women who fought back were chained and tortured on display in the courtyard to deter others from resisting.

For a few, there would be one solace. If they became pregnant, they would spared the journey across the Atlantic ocean. The general and the soldiers kept the mothers and their lighter skinned children in nearby homes. The children were given proper education which developed into the first Ghanaian schools. It is said that many of the locals with Portuguese or Dutch last names are descendants of these women.
After visiting the women’s dungeons, we were led to the caves that held 600 men at a time. Often times, tribes captured other rival tribes and brought them to the castles to trade for goods. Men of the same tribe were separated to make communication difficult. The captured men were fed a small meal only once a day to weaken them and lessen the chance of an uprising. There were men called “freedom fighters” who risked their lives to free other slaves. When a freedom fighter was caught, they were thrown into a prison cell baring a skull and crossbones. The guards would wait 3 days for them to die from starvation or dehydration.

The enormity of the castle is difficult to express. The one we visited in Elimina is the largest in the world. Between the giant fort walls lies a large two-story Catholic church built by the Portuguese. Years later during the Dutch occupation, the Dutch also built their own place of worship inside the castle. As we walked through the churches it was unsettling to feel the irony of religion in the middle of such sin.

The tour of the castle ended with the tour guide asking for us not to focus on the past injustices, but instead to use our energy to ensure humanity never again repeats such crimes against each other. He recited the following verse that is inscribed on the main wall.

IN EVERLASTING MEMORY
OF THE ANGUISH OF OUR ANCESTORS
MAY THOSE WHO DIED REST IN PEACE
MAY THOSE WHO RETURN FIND THEIR ROOTS
MAY HUMANITY NEVER AGAIN PERPETRATE
SUCH INJUSTICE AGAINST HUMANITY
WE THE LIVING VOW TO UPHOLD THIS

Pictures of the castle
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26883529@N02/sets/72157606857168929/