Elmina

Today I ventured away from Takoradi for a bit to explore Elmina, which is located about 90 minutes east of Takoradi by tro-tro and shared taxi (definitely getting the full African transportation experience).

Elmina is one of Ghana's most historical sites, with the Portuguese first arriving in the 15th century. Later the Dutch came and held Elmina for a good little while, before selling all of their forts to the Brits in 1872, who controlled Gold Coast colony until 1957. However, what Elmina is best known for is its slave history: the Castle of St. George (aka Elmina Castle) represented one rather tortuous part of the slave trade. In short, slaves would be captured in the interior of West Africa (oftentimes Ashantis capturing Ashantis) and herded hundreds of miles through rough, mosquito-infested terrain to the coast, where they would be held in European castles like St. George, prior to being loaded onto ships bound for the New World. For more historical details, see Emma's post.

Elmina was originally built by the Portuguese, but all that's left of their work is a chapel which now serves as a museum. The Dutch expanded the castle to more or less its current size, with much of the fort being above 4 stories. I got to see the male and female slave dungeons where they would be crammed in by the hundreds in these dark, damp, smelly rooms for weeks or months awaiting their fates. And there were tons of bats flying around. It was an incredibly powerful experience, and I couldn't stand in there for more than a minute. The governor would also have lived quite close to the slave quarters, and I could see the "mansion" in which he lived and could oversee operations at the port. There were also lots of cannons and passageways to explore. The pictures are quite memory-intensive, so they will be posted later.

Right in front of the Castle is a bustling fishing harbour and market, with all the boats marked with different national flags and stuff. Very colorful. After the castle, I explored a different fort, Fort St. Jago, which is atop a hill in Elmina. It was built by the Dutch to ensure that no one could take over St. George in the same way that they did (which was by bombardment from the top of St. Jago hill). This fort was rather run-down (and also had lots of bats), but it afforded amazing pictures of St. George and the town.

Afterwards, I strolled through some rather dilapidated parts of town toward the St. Joseph Catholic Mission, which had been the first Catholic seat in Ghana (and headquarters for the Church during the Gold Coast year). I was treated to a very nice tour of their museum, and got pictures of the first cathedra (not cathedral; this is the bishop's seat) in Ghana, which was carved out of hardwood in 1888. Intense stuff right there.

Getting home was a bit of an adventure, and I could not find the lorry station that the Bradt guide promised was in the old town. So I had to play lost obruni and have the locals hail a shared taxi for me to get to the proper tro-tro junction. But I think they liked my kente shirt (or the idea of an obruni wearing a kente shirt), so I was treated exceptionally well. I even made a couple more friends on the tro-tro ride back to Takoradi. Not a bad day at all.

On a less positive note, I think the housekeeping staff stole my razor blade (not the whole razor) this morning. I reported it not because I expected to have it back (I really don't want it back...), but because I'm not tolerating any "broken windows". Hmmm ...