Cape Coast

Another weekend (#5) and another weekend trip.  This was a long weekend for most of Ghana.   Thursday, March 6th, was independence day and most people take off from work and school until Monday.  

For independence day I went to Black Star Square with some other volunteers.  The square sits between the ocean and the national stadium close to the center of Accra.  It's a huge parade ground with large stands on 3 sides that have high roofs to protect people in the stands from the sun.  The event started before 9am to avoid the heat.  Various military and police groups are represented, with each having about 200 men and women march in formation onto the square.  A few schools have the honor of marching and they come on behind them.  Everyone stands at attention by group and each group has a uniform with a color different from the others.  Soon there are a few thousand people in the square and it's not close to being full.  It all looks good and a military band is playing marching music.  On the fourth side of the square, where there are no stands, is a large burning flame and a line of military equipment on display, plus ambulances, firetrucks, etc.  Just offshore is a warship.  Everyone is excited, talking, some groups are singing, and every kind of food is available from the head porters.

After every group is on the square standing at attention, different dignitaries come onto the parade ground in black cars escorted by motorcycle police.  Last of all is the president escorted by elaborately dressed guards on horses.  The dignitaries have a special stand with the ocean to its back.

By the time the president arrives, we've been in the stands over an hour and it has been getting darker and darker.  Clearly we are in for an incredibly heavy rain.  Soon, the air is so thick with moisture that the stand across the square look hazy.  Then the rain starts.  Hard and heavy and never ending.  The people in the stands are protected from the rain by moving in from the side facing the wind.  But the people standing at attention are immediately drenched and no one moves.  It's raining and hitting the roof of the stands so hard,, we have to shout to talk to the person next to us.  This goes on for about 15 minutes and then president begins to review the troops while standing in a special car that has a place high enough for every to see him.  The car passes the first row of standees and the a decision is obviously made to have the car then simply make a large circle around the parade grounds so everyone can see him and cheer and then it returns to his covered viewing stand.

Different smaller groups, mostly specialty forces, next begin to march past the president's viewing stand and then past the crowds.  If they break into dance, they get a big cheer.  At some point, the school kids are dismissed and they break and run for the stands. 

I'm with some volunteers and after about 2 hours, people are getting antsy.  It's decided we should make a run for it and get to a place to get warm drinks.  We step out into the rain and in an instant I'm completely soaked jumping over small rivers and walking through others.  Finally, I know why there are huge drainage ditches along all the roads.

I had expected big crowds for independence day and decided not to carry my backpack, thus, no pictures of the day.

On Friday morning we worked half a day and that afternoon set off for a weekend in Cape Coast.  We travel of course by tro-tro.  Thankfully it's a 3 hour trip.  We follow the major route east along the coast - one lane in each direction.  Cape Coast was the larger of the colonial trading towns.  It has a minimal harbor with a large fort sitting on a rocky outcropping that creates onside of the harbor.  It was founded by the Swedes in mid 1600's, then taken over by the Dutch, then it was taken over by the British who held the fort from about 1700, who never lost it.  Trading was at first mainly for the gold (this was known as the gold coast).  Soon, the main commerce was in slaves.  We toured the fort, known as "the Castle".  It looks beautiful from the outside but it holds a number of dungeons for male and female slaves and a tunnel that leads from male dungeons to a door with steps down to the water, where small boats rowed the captives out to slave ships.  This was the major slave trading spot and the door they left the fort from is known as the "the door of no return".

The dungeons are huge and have very little or no light and ventilation.  We're told each of the 5 male dungeons held 200 shackled slaves, more than could lay on the ground at any one time.  We are also told the slaves had to live in their own muck.  The floors are brick with a shallow drain down the middle leading to the ocean.  But the guide shows us a mark as to how deep was the muck they lived in.  It's higher than knee deep.  He said they had to excavate to the floor when the castle was restored.  The point is made that this is where many people died.  The guide asked why Europeans would treat their slaves so poorly and then answers himself, saying it was because slaves were so readily available.  But that didn't seem satisfactory to me.  I think it shows not only how little regard the colonials had for local life, but it was a way to break the will of anyone who might try to fight back while on a ship.  It is incredibly bleak in the dungeons, especially when the light gets turned off for our benefit.  Anyone who survived and made it to the boats, had to had been beaten down to the point of giving up all hope.

We're told that the slaves were shipped out every three months.  Female slaves had better lighting and ventilation because the floor of their dungeons are higher.  We're told they were raped (of course) and if any were pregnant before they left, a soldier had the right to have the woman put up in town (under guard) and keep her and the child.  But if a slave was found pregnant on the boats, they were thrown over.  We see more rooms of misery and then we view the fort upstairs.  It is small for the 400 soldiers that we're told lived there, but with some big rooms for the governor.  It's all white and very bright and hot.  Remarkably, the church floor was the roof of the dungeon.

At the National museum, I read about a Danish ship that came to Cape Coast and waited about 200 days for a load of slaves.  During that time, half the ship's crew died.  It must have been miserable to be stationed at the fort, with diarrhea and malaria taking it's toll on everyone's health. Their misery must have added to their cruelty toward the slaves.  The fort is designed for holding and shipping slaves and the stark cruelty of the trade is overwhelming.

I have pictures of the fort, but not of the places slaves were held.  Firstly, I did not pay the fee to take pictures and the guide is standing there.  Second, it seemed wrong to take a picture just after the guide points out the line for the depth of shit and vomit or the place to hold woman who resist rape.

Here are the pictures:

Looking toward the harbor.  The tunnel from the male dungeons ends at the last point of the fort with a door to waiting boats.

This is looking toward the same point as the photo above.  The ground slopes downward through the arch at the end of the wall leading to the door of no return.  Inside the wall with the cannons, about 10 feet down, is a pathway leading to the door to the boats.  The openings you see in the wall is for soldiers to look down at the slaves and keep count.  The tunnel was closed up by the British when they outlawed the slave trade in 1830's.

Another view of the way to the door.  You can see people entering one of the female dungeons.

The view east, away from the harbor.  We stayed at a "resort" ($2.50 per night) where you see people on the beach.

The view west and the harbor, taken from outside the "door of no return".  The closest boats are sitting on the stairs that took the slaves to the boats that shuttled out to the ships.  As you can see, this is a big fishing area.

Similar view to above, except taken from a fort window.

Cape Coast is busy market town that is full of people like Accra, but without the traffic or the frantic feeling.  There are many old buildings, but they are worn so badly that it's hard to know what they were like when newer.

Here are a few pictures of the town.

Unless you enlarge these photos, it's too hard to get a sense of city from them.  You can see the ubiquitous gutters in each of the city pictures that I referenceded in the first section above.   Some are covered by wood, or metal grates or concrete slats.  You never know when smells will waft up.  On the hill is an auxiliary fort that was used to protect and warn the main fort of any inland threat.

Goats can be found roaming everywhere, in every town and city. 

Most mosques are usually small and plain.  This one caught my interest. 

  

Lastly, there is the beautiful beach.  We stayed in the usual style of resort, that has huts of various sizes and prices, african drumming and then western dance music at night and they serve meals.  I have the same problem here, as at other resorts and beaches.  There are no trash bins provided so people throw things everywhere.  And the beaches are treated as a place to swim and as a place to throw garbage and use as a bathroom.  It's ok around the hotel because they sweep the grounds and beach in the morning and too many people are around for serious bathroom use.  But just walk a few yards past the property line and there are hogs living on the waste as seen in the pictures below: