Our next stop brought us to one of the most haunting places we have ever been. The visit was transformative for each of us. Elmina castle was built in the 1400s by the Portuguese when they arrived in Ghana searching for gold. The castle was later taken over by the Dutch and ultimately to the British. The Dutch and British used the castle as the last stop for West African people captured for the slave trade. The photos here only do some justice to the horrors of this place. It had to be hell on earth for the people brought here for this purpose. It was their last stop before being shipped across the Atlantic to destinations that included the Caribbean Islands, Europe, and other parts of the world. It is estimated that up to 50 million people from West Africa were captured for this purpose between the sixteenth-nineteenth century. Many never made it to the slave castles on the coast where they would be detained for months waiting for the next slave ship to arrive.
The horrid existence these people endured at Elmina castle is beyond description but touring the castle and all of the cells used to "store" people gives one a vivid sense of how inhumanly they were treated.
The photos shown begin with one taken of a sign in the main court yard of the castle. Click on it to enlarge it so you can read what it says. It was given to the President of Ghana to be posted there by a group of Afro-Americans who visited Elmina castle in the late 20th century. Their visit's expressed purpose was to see the slave castles. The sign is as elegantly profound as it is peaceful. It doesn't need any further description as you will surely agree after reading it.
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