Places of Interest in Accra and Ghana- Elmina Castle

Saint George's Castle also called Elmina Castle is about 75 miles west of Accra and is situated in the coastal town of Elmina, in the Cape Coast area of Ghana. Now a tourist destination for some, but perhaps more of a pilgrimage for others, such as the living descendents of those that were forced to leave, is considered to be one of the oldest European-built structure in sub-Saharan Africa.

It was built in 1482 by the Portuguese originally for trading and storage of their gold, and to protect it from other European competitors and African powers. The castle was captured in the 17th century by the Dutch and became a major slave trading centre; the areas originally built for storage were converted into dungeons for the captured slaves.

Sad tales are told there today by tour guides such as of women who had not had the right to wash for considerable time were picked out by their white masters, standing on balconies above & looking down into the courtyard for a female that took their fancy. The female slaves were used to satisfy urges which could not be met by their absent wives who were not living or stationed with their husbands.

The Gold Cost as Ghana was originally known was one of the richest markets for slave traders during the peak of the slave trade , hundreds of thousands of people were captured and passed through Elmina and were shipped into the Americas and Caribbean over a period of around 300 years.

As a white Englishman married to a Black Ghanaian I almost get a sense of irony over the "white/ black" thing but Elmina to me is not about whites and blacks but more a reminder, that humans are capable of anything, and doing anything to each other.

We can talk about the "New Millennium" and "technology" but really people have not, it would seem have spiritually evolved at all since Christ died.

There are still the doers and the talkers, the thugs in smart suites, the envious, those who expect others to make their future for them ,instead of getting off their lazy backsides and doing it themselves, and the hypocrites who go to church every Sunday

We can all learn from the past if we all have the guts to keep history factual, face it and not forget it. For those that might scold us whites and say look what you did, let me point out its a documented fact Ghanaians ( particularly one tribe) were implicit in selling their own Country folk ( normally other tribes) to the English , and were happy to receive remittance for the transactions.