Castles & Slave Dungeons - Last Day in Ghana

Oh boy...I'm not gonna lie...I'm ready to go back to class. Ghana was simply exhausting.

 

I know everyone wants to know this: I got your mail!!!!! A big thank you to Mom, Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, and Aunt Debbie for sending it to me! I had the hugest smile on when I found the envelopes stuck in my door this morning. THANK YOU!!!!

 

Today was our last day which started out with me going to breakfast and being super excited that they had FRUIT LOOPS for a cereal choice. (It's the little things in life, especially when on a ship...) A great start to an awesome day! It was rainy, wet and cold this morning....a rare kind of morning for the dry season in Ghana. We boarded the buses and made a 1.5 hour drive to the first castle Cape Coast Castle in Cape Coast, Ghana. It was very interesting. We were shown the chapel where the English governor, merchants, and soldiers would worship. Directly below the chapel was the dungeon. So while the white men were praying there were 1,000 men packed into 5 rooms yelling, crying, starving and dying directly under the chapel floor. We were able to go into the dungeon where they told us about the living conditions. There was a little moat in the center of the room where the slaves would go the bathroom and vomit. The rain water was then supposed to carry the feces away. But it very very very rarely rains in Ghana! Eventually many of them ended up dying from disease. When the castle was no longer used for keeping slaves, the dungeons had about a foot of feces on the floor. This was the same place these people were sleeping! The floor we were standing on was the original floor. When we all piled into these massive dungeons they turned off the light and let the natural light shine through the 3, one foot by one foot windows that were high on the wall. We then all sang Amazing Grace and it felt so awful to be in the dark, without being able to see anything. The slaves were kept in there for 3 to 4 months. They got one single day while they were there to go outside and help split rocks that were used to build the castle. They were then shackled and brought back to the dungeons. In one of the dungeon rooms, there was this hole near the top of the ceiling. This is where the soldiers would feed the slaves. They literally threw food down to them and the slaves fought for it. They did the same thing with water and the slaves would have to catch it in their cupped hands. The water they used was rain water and many times had traces of malaria in it. This would end up killing many of the slaves. We also walked around the castle and saw where the Governor slept which was a huge room with 7 windows and his living room had 9. A drastic comparison to the practically windowless, hot and sweaty dungeons. The governor as well as soldiers would fulfill their sexual urges by raping female slaves. The pregnant women would be sent to the nearby town to deliver their children and then were sent back to the castle. The babies that they birthed were called Mulatto and are a major race in Ghana today. If the women refused to be raped, they would be chained to a ball where other slaves could see her and it would scare them into allowing the governor to rape them.

 

We were then taken to a condemned cell. In this cell, as many as 30 slaves were kept. There was no air, light, food, water, and very little ventilation. If the slaves did not die in this cell in 14 days, they were moved to an even more claustrophobic cell where they would die. Lastly, we went through the "Door of No Return." This was the door that the slaves would go through as they were led to the slave ships that would carry them to places like the United States. They would be counted and shackled as they were led to the ships.

 

When we went through the door, on the other side was, what is now is a fishing village. Hundreds of boats were lined up. Men were adjusting their fishing nets and preparing to head out to sea to drag the nets and catch fish. It was so colorful and the boats are painted many bright colors. It was very neat. We then were able to go back through the door, unlike the slaves that left and never returned.

 

It was really weird because after going to this castle we went to this resort which was in the middle of no where and ate lunch. It was really nice, very delicious, and right on the ocean!

 

After that we went to another castle which was a Portuguese castle and very much the same as the previous one. Except this one had a draw bridge and two moats!!! So that was kind of cool! Other than that, it had similar dungeons.

 

It was very interesting to see the castles and it made me feel like a monster!

I don't really understand my fascination with things like this. The holocaust and slave trade has always interested me. Both are such horrific times in history that I guess I am just fascinated by the thought that people felt what they were doing was fine. It was an amazing experience to actually be in the dungeons. I still can't quite imagine it. It really fascinates me though.

 

We are now back in the big blue ocean and on our way to South Africa. Tomorrow is an A day which means I have international marketing. There are 6 days of class between Ghana and South Africa and I'm really hoping they will fly by!