Sunday morning, we showered and headed for breakfast. While it was enjoyable, our tea, juice, and eggs took a long time, delaying the rest of the day. When we finally had eaten and paid, we met Bright again to bring us down the Elmina Castle.
Above: The river beside the castle, so full you can barely see the water.
Arriving outside of the castle, we came across a huge congregation of people fishing, unloading boats, selling in the market, and sitting around. It really felt like this has been going on for a very long time.
Above: Another view of the river.
While driving, we also had to rearrange our plans for a later time to meet another driver named ‘My Brother’ who was going to bring us to Asen Manso. That location is about an hour away from Elmina and was both a market where people were sold into slavery and is set beside a river that was used for “the last bath” that those being taken down to the castle dungeons would be given on the continent. After some further negotiations with the driver who called around the time we were supposed to meet to inform us hthat the agreed price would have to be increased or we would need to find another driver...on a Sunday...within an hour...to a place that we did not know how to go to. While Pierrette was fed, I insisted that we should still go, as we could all feel the importance of going to Asen Manso.
After straightening everything out, we would have an hour and a half at Elmina before heading up to Asen Manso.
Going into the castle, I prayed again. Elmina Castle is much older and far more decayed. Part of the tour was off-limits due to substantial renovations taking place. Walking through the castle, you can actually rub many of the walls and pieces will crumble into your hands.
Above: This is the gate that crosses a mote with a draw bridge into the castle.
Above: The Colonial stamp, set in stone.
Walking through the castle, you find that you can actually rub the walls and pieces wil crumble into your hands.
Above: You can see the texture of the corosion.
Above: Wreaths rest on the walls decorated by sea air.
One of the first things that was made very clear to me in Elmina, is how a guide can impact your understanding of what you are seeing.
We began the tour in the courtyard beside the female quarters. A major part of what we were shown was where the women were held and where they were paraded before castle authorities to be chosen for rape. We were shown where they were bathed by soldiers and the stairway they were brought up on their way to the living quarters of the criminals that supervised the evil trade.
While we were brought to many other parts of the castle: prisoner cells, death cells, the male dungeon, the church (both castles have one), and the shipping exit, it was the upstairs that hit me the hardest. This was where the colonizers ate, met, had their lookout spots, and where they slept. We went into one of the larger chambers, and I could feel the place haunted with violence and a disturbing evil. It was so subtle...standing in there, it was quiet, bright and empty; but there was a heaviness that just screamed through my nervous system. It was an evil that was so casual. This was where the tour ended. I just sat on the stairs thinking, where I was joined by Sebrina.
I looked around thinking, ‘People lived in this place...these things happened right here’.
Another moment, earlier in the tour that struck me was in the basement. Standing in front of the exit to the ships, you look through a small doorway.
It could be in any other historical building anywhere, but it’s not; you look through this small doorway where thousands, adding up to millions of people passed through as the foundation of a Diaspora that birthed nations.
Jamaica, Antigua, Haiti, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, Barbados, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, Bermuda, and the list goes on. Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama. People from Miami to Seattle, LA and Texas to New York and Detroit...Vancouver to Toronto, Buxton and Halifax...London, Paris and across the globe. A Diaspora that birthed Hip Hop, Reggae, Jazz, Nobel Prize winning authors, some of the most influential people ever (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Marcus Garvey, Robert Nesta Marley, Muhammad Ali, Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, Maya Angelou, Ms. Lou, Duke Ellington, Betty Shabazz, Gordon Parks, Harriet Tubman, Micheal Jackson, Oprah Winfrey). A Diaspora that facilitated the stability of the European continent and that built the United States of America, arguably the super-power of the moment.
All of this and much, much more than I have begun to list from approximately 12 million people passed through this very gate.
Above: Gazing through the gate, that countless souls passed through, birthing nations and sustaining empires.
Before leaving Elmina, one of the things that stands out the most is the smell. It is so strong and putrid that you can almost see it. You wonder what you are smelling hundreds of years later.
Above: The Elmina Court
Upon leaving the castle, we headed to the bustling marketplace of Elmina which is dominated by the sale of fish. We found some water, roasted plantain (Pierrette had to have some!) and some delicious fried dumplings. We then embarked on our road trip. While we each knew that this next stage of the journey was critical and could not be missed, I do not think we realized what we were about to experience.
Covenent to be kept.
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