Cape Coast Castle
- Jenna
- Mar 23, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 26, 2019
*Warning: This post does contain graphic information, as it involves the enslavement of humans.
During our time in Cape Coast, we had the opportunity to tour the historic Cape Coast Castle.
Cape Coast Castle was the largest export of humans and other "goods", such as guns and ammunition during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Cape Coast Castle is one of approximately forty castles along the coastline of Ghana, formerly known as the Gold Coast before liberation from the British in 1957. The purpose of these slave castles, including Cape Coast Castle, was to house and store property and goods while awaiting the a ship before the goods could be transported across the Atlantic Ocean for sale.
Below are some images from our tour of Cape Coast Castle. These images do not reflect the significance this place represents, particularly the history, torture and dehumanization it carries. There is no way I can fully share the stories nor emotional magnitude and weight of Cape Coast Castle through these images online.
And yet, they demonstrate a small fraction of our shared human history. They are visuals to create a framework of what colonialism and one aspect of the Triangle Trade looked like. I encourage you to use these images as a starting point to better understand our history.
If there is any interest in discussing my experiences at Cape Coast Castle, I am open to meeting and sharing some of this experience with you in person. Thank you.
The building with a red-ish roof is the church, located directly above the Male Slave Dungeon. Every week people gathered here to worship together.
As President Barack Obama said during his visit with his family to the Cape Coast Castle in July 2009, "...it reminds us of the capacity of human beings to commit great evil. One of the most striking things that I heard was that right above the dungeons in which male captives were kept was a church, and that reminds us that sometimes we can tolerate and stand by great evil even as we think that we’re doing good."
Inside the Male Slave Dungeon, there are multiple compartments. Each compartment housed approximately 1,500 men. Required to stand at all times, these men ate, slept and defecated while standing next to their fellow enslaved brothers.
Above the Male Slave Dungeon was a church, where people gathered together to worship each week.
Stairs leading up to the Governor's quarters, where there is a separate room reserved for the raping of enslaved women. Every woman slave was raped by the governor and/or officers during the confinement at Cape Coast Castle.
If a woman became pregnant, the child was taken from her at birth if the child was born at the castle. If a woman was pregnant on a ship between the castle and the Caribbean or Americas, and this pregnancy was discovered by her captors, the woman was thrown overboard and fed to the sharks.
The Door of No Return. Any slave who passed through these doors was never to be seen again by their family nor loved ones, as they were taken to board a ship for the Caribbean or Americas to be sold as property.
Overlooking the castle walls onto nearby fishing boats and the Gulf of Guinea.
Our group discussing present day impacts of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade after the completion of our tour.
"You know, I think it was particularly important for Malia and Sasha, who are growing up in such a blessed way, to be reminded that history can take very cruel turns, and hopefully one of the things that was imparted to them during this trip is their sense of obligation to fight oppression and cruelty wherever it appears, and that any group of people who are degrading another group of people have to be fought against with whatever tools we have available to us." - President Barack Obama, July 2009
Ghana became a sovereign nation, independent from the colonial rule of England on March 6th, 1957.
On April 7th, 1957 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered this exceptional speech in Montgomery, Alabama regarding the liberation of the Gold Coast, the rise of their new Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah and the lessons America - and any people seeking freedom - could learn from the new nation of Ghana.
"The road to freedom is difficult, but finally, Ghana tells us that the forces of the universe are on the side of justice. That’s what it tells us, now. You can interpret Ghana any kind of way you want to, but Ghana tells me that the forces of the universe are on the side of justice. That night when I saw that old flag coming down and the new flag coming up, I saw something else. That wasn’t just an ephemeral, evanescent event appearing on the stage of history. But it was an event with eternal meaning, for it symbolizes something. That thing symbolized to me that an old order is passing away and a new order is coming into being. An old order of colonialism, of segregation, of discrimination is passing away now. And a new order of justice and freedom and good will is being born. That’s what it said. Somehow the forces of justice stand on the side of the universe, so that you can’t ultimately trample over God’s children and profit by it." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Birth of a New Nation
"We’ve got to keep on keeping on in order to gain freedom. It never comes like that. It would be fortunate if the people in power had sense enough to go on and give up, but they don’t do it like that. It is not done voluntarily, but it is done through the pressure that comes about from people who are oppressed." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Birth of a New Nation
"And this is the peace that we are seeking. Not an old negative obnoxious peace, which is merely the absence of tension, but a positive lasting peace, which is the presence of brotherhood and justice. And it is never brought about without this temporary period of tension." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Birth of a New Nation
I believe there are lessons of great value in this moving speech that are of benefit to our nation today as we wrestle with injustices and inequalities still. In the words of the late, great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "There is a great day ahead. The future is on its side. It’s going now through the wilderness. But the Promised Land is ahead."
Thank you, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for your lasting wisdom and guidance, and thank you Ghana for preserving these dark, tragic and horrific pieces of history for humanity to learn from and grow.
"As painful as it is, I think that it helps to teach all of us that we have to do what we can to fight against the kinds of evils that, sadly, still exist in our world, not just on this continent but in every corner of the globe." - President Obama's statement from Cape Coast Castle
Sources:
- The audio recording of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s The Birth of a New Nation sermon delivered April 1957
- PDF of the sermon, The Birth of a New Nation (04/07/1957)
- Time article with President Obama's statement
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