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Gold Coast: Slave Castles

Elmina

Elmina Castle was built in 1482 by the Portuguese, for the trading of ivory, pepper and gold. After the slave trade began in 1562 the castle was constantly being taken over by different countries ending with the British (Oppong & Oppong: 2003). Today, the castle is used as a tourist attraction.

Cape Coast

Cape Coast Castle was built in 1653 by the Swedish and it too bounced back and forth between different European countries prior to being taken over by the British. Cape Coast is also a tourist attraction located 18 kilometers from Elmina Castle. Although Elmina’s fishing village is larger, Cape Coast is also home to many fisherman.

After visiting the castles we were surprised that the surrounding grounds were being used by fisherman from the fishing village as a place to clean fish and fix nets. Imagine, after spending time in the slave dungeons and cells being brought to the famous “door of no return.”

You symbolically pass through it and there are men and children at work. Although this may be a part of everyday life, it had an impact on how some people perceived the castle today. We would have expected that these sacred grounds would have been preserved in memory to all the slaves that passed through the door. Instead, everyday life of the Ghanaian fisherman surrounded the grounds of the castle. Richards (2005) asked the simple question, "What is to be remembered" after visiting these same slave castles.

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