Never Again

Cape Coast is a haunting place. You look at the beautiful beaches, the fresh seafood, and the relaxing atmosphere and you get comfortable. Way too comfortable. Then you visit the slave dungeons, and you can still hear the cries of terror and pain. Indeed, the only way I could describe Cape Coast is as if the Auschwitz concentration camps were located on a Hawaii beach. It's eerie how beautiful it is, and it's a testament to the evil that mankind is capable of.

The ironic fact is that both slave castles that I toured have quite interesting histories not related to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Elmina ("The Mine" in Portuguese) Castle was originally a trade post for the Portuguese, who were the first Europeans to land on Africa in the 15th century or so. The original reason Europe became interested in Africa was to get to the source of the gold trade to finance its Crusades against the Islamic World. Elmina then was put under the rule of the Dutch, and it served as the slave trade post for the Netherlands. Cape Coast Castle, on the other hand, was originally built by the Swedes for trade, was also controlled by the Dutch until the English captured it. Cape Coast Castle served as the slave trade post for the English.

And the slave trade will be what these castles will forever be remembered for. Slavery existed in Africa and all over the world before and during the period of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, but the cruelty of this system, which simultaneously established a link between Europe, Africa, and America that exists to this day, is what sets it apart from the other forms of slavery that have existed throughout human history.

Men and women were separated into separate dungeons, where they were kept in pitch black rooms. The conditions of these dungeons were awful. The floor would be covered in fecies, urine, blood, and vomit. Each dungeon had one window for light, air, and rain, the latter being the only means of cleaning the hellish groundfloor. Many people died in these unsanitary dungeons from the conditions alone, and those who lived were forced to stay in overcrowded dungeons. The British (and also the Dutch at Elmina) served the slaves only enough food to live, but not enough to have the energy and strength to rebel against them.

The female dungeons are on a whole other level. In addition to the awful conditions of the dungeons during the period of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the woman had to deal with particular issues in the slave castles. Slave women in the holding dungeons would be chosen like cattle by the sailors, soldiers, and colonial officials. The women would be taken from the dungeons to be raped, and then returned when the particular white man was finished. Each castle had its own method of executing this system, but it existed in all of them. If a slave was found to be pregnant in the dungeons, they would be removed and allowed to stay in the castle long enough to give birth. After this they would return to the dungeon and eventually be shipped to America as slaves while their children remained with the colonial officials to be raised Christian. Women found pregnant while at sea were treated the same as the slaves that were sick on the ship. They were tossed overboard, left to drown in the sea.

In the castle slaves were divided. Those considered very strong, such as the Mandingos, were kept in the dungeons to be sent to America. The weak were kept as slave hands in the castle. If slaves rebelled and fought (what Africans call "freedom fighters"), they were taken to a dark holding cell where they were given no food or water. The door would be shut, and they would suffocate to death. Those that made it to the Americas would find their destinies laboring under a similarly cruel system until well into the 19th century.

Finally, there is the "Door of No Return." Once a slave passed through this door they could never turn back. The door led to a beach where the ships would be waiting to transport them to America as "human cargo." In 1998 or so, the door was renamed on the outside "Door of Return," an event celebrating and welcoming the African-Americans who returned to Africa and the land of their ancestors.

What happened here in Cape Coast was a crime against humanity. Whatever one may feel about him, this past summer Barack Obama became the first president in American history to confront the abortion of justice and humanity that occured here. He and Michelle Obama have both left wreaths in the male and female dungeons at Cape Coast Castle. America and South Africa are the two global symbols of racism for apartheid in the latter and slavery and Jim Crow in the former, so the significance of Obama's visit to the slave dungeons is difficult to overstate. Indeed, if Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for any single reason, it is probably his visit here.

There are plaques in both Elmina and Cape Coast Castles that acknowledges the ancestors who died as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, as well as those who survived and return here to the land of their ancestors. The last few lines read "May humanity never again perpetrate such an injustice against humanity. We now live to uphold this oath." I will let the reader interpret this as they will.

Tomorrow I head to the Eastern Region for a few days and then after the Volta Region, but the terrible things that I learned about here in Cape Coast will haunt me for the rest of my life. I have tried to describe the horrors that occurred on the beaches of Cape Coast to the best of my memory so everyone reading can understand. I write from a small town that witnessed a genocide, a crime against humanity that is too often forgotten in the very land that directly benefitted from these atrocities. All I can say is "Never again."