Ghana - Castles & Canopy walk

Depiction of slavery at the museum in Cape Coast Castle

The nightmarish traffic of Accra

Perhaps the must see places when visiting Ghana are its colonial era castles dating back to 1400’s, so I decided to finish my trip of Ghana by visiting these UNESCO World Heritage sites. The castles are about a 3-4 hours drive from Accra and the road is pretty decent once out of the city. The main problem is just getting out of Accra as it takes almost 1-1.5 hours to navigate out of the city. The road conditions around the city and the traffic congestion does not help either.

Slave trade route

Pathway to the door where the slaves
were boarded on the ships

Door of no return

Fishermen heading to the ocean as seen from the castle walls

Happy!

Castle at Cape Coast

Fante fishing village

Canons stand guard

Coastal road

Atlantic Ocean

Delicious peanut curried
chicken with rice balls

Once out of the city it’s a very pleasant drive as we cruise beside tropical, coconut lined shoreline intermittently catching a glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean as we pass through numerous picturesque fishing villages. Some of these fishing villages have decaying forts overlooking them which are a precursor of the castles to come.

On the way there were numerous signboards welcoming Barrack Obama and his family who visited these castles in 2009. The president's wife, Michelle Obama actually considers these castles as her ancestral home which I think needs some explanation on the history of these castles in the context of Ghana and slavery.

The region of current day Ghana was inhabited in pre-colonial times by a number of ancient Kingdoms of different tribes, the most powerful of which was the Ashanti Kingdom which was reputed to have an army of 500,000 at the peak of its powers.

Trade with these Kingdoms is what first bought Europeans to the shores of modern day Ghana around the same time when Europeans sea trade commenced with India in the 15th century. As was the case with India, the Portuguese were the first to set up trading with the locals. Portugal at that time was a severely under populated, impoverished nation so they had more reason to find a trade route through the sea to avoid the high cost of trading through the land as it was monopolized by the Arabs at that time.

Early European contact by the Portuguese, who came to Ghana in the 15th century, focused on the extensive availability of gold as the region of modern Ghana has had large deposits of gold for centuries (infact it’s still one of the top producers of gold in the world). Initially, the trade was by barter system where gold, timber and ivory were traded for European clothing, shoes and other finished goods.

Kakum National Park

The bridge stretching across the canopy

Canopy walk at Kakum

Seeing the profits made by the Portuguese in this trade other European nations including the English, Danes and Swedes soon joined the trade setting up their own forts which served as a bastion for their trading. There were multiple skirmishes between these nations over the trade and these forts frequently changed hands between these nations. Each time they were won by a nation, they were fortified and expanded and some became big enough to be called castles.

This same time when Europe was prospering, there was a shortage for manual labor which prompted the Europeans to pursue slave trading. What initially began as trading of slaves with the local kingdom later turned into a lucrative proposition where there were special expeditions that took place to capture people so that they could be slaved and shipped around the world.

Elmina castle

I took a picture of the trade route from Africa to the new world and west Europe which shows the slave trade routes. This explains the large Diaspora of people of African descent in the United States, Cuba, Caribbean, Suriname, Brazil, and some parts of Western Europe.

The bats have taken up residence in the dilapidated castle

The 1st castle that I saw was the Cape Coast Castle which was built by the Portuguese (some say Swedish traders) but ultimately fell in the hands of the English. While we were guided through the castle we came across deep dungeons where there was not a ray of light and unfortunately for the slaves not a ray of hope at that time.

They were all crammed there couple hundred at a time in such tight spaces that there would be hardly any room to sit let along sleep. There was just one small dark hole that provided what little ventilation they could have. A recent excavation of the dungeons was carried out and the floor was found to contain remains of human sweat, blood, vomit and excrement.

Elmina

Numerous slaves perished and the ones that survived were loaded onto the ships that arrived from Europe and the New World through a gate which was named “The gate of no return” as the slaves that left these gates never set foot on their homeland again. I can’t help but think that the current African Diaspora in the US and other former slave nations owe their freedom and quality of life to their ancestors who made this trip through hell.

Fishing boat

Twilight on a remote beach

I would like to recite the guide’s final statement to us at the end of the tour. He asked not to harbor any ill feeling against anyone, or any race or country for the slave trade. It’s not just the Europeans that were involved in the trade. Infact, the local kingdoms had slaves much before the Europeans saw potential in it and the slaves were also prisoners of war that were caught by warring tribes and traded with the Europeans. It was a crime committed by humans against humans and let’s hope that we never see humans committing crimes like these against humanity ever again.

My day old nephew

Before checking out the 2nd Castle (Elmina), I took a quick trip inland into the Kakum National Reserve to take a canopy walk and below are few pictures from the national reserve and the canopy walk.

The Elmina (The Mine in Portuguese) Castle in Portuguese was also initially built by the Portuguese but later captured by the Dutch. It’s a little smaller in size that the Cape Coast Castle and is about a 30 minute drive away. Infact, both the castles can be seen to each other from their respective vantage points. This proximity to the enemy must have been quite unnerving to both of them as they must have had constant battles and sea invasion attempts which explain the existence of the canons.

The village right outside the Elmina castle was very colorful with fishing boats and a big flea market. That was definitely one of the most color sights and my pictures don’t quite do it justice. I had lunch around the village surrounding the Elmina castle and it was pretty delicious with some curry made of peanut sauce and fried fish along with rice balls.

Mom bringing him home

With Dad

Although my trip to Ghana started on a miserable note with my visa issues, I think I was able to cram in quite a bit into my limited time there and it was certainly a worthwhile experience.

As I headed towards India to spend some quality time with family, there was one more surprise awaiting me once I got there. I am happy to say that I am an Uncle now. My sister in law gave birth to a baby boy the same day I arrive in India so it was a wonderful time to be home.

The baby and the mother are doing fine…I can’t believe that my twin brother is a dad…just cannot imagine that. Plus my mother and father are grandparent now….and I have started feeling a little older too…Amazing how one moment changes so many things! I am going to leave you all with the pictures of my nephew.