Galavanting in Ghana: Elmina & Ada Beach

Elmina Castle

Just…wow. Two weeks ago, I went to Elmina Castle in Cape Coast, Ghana. What an interesting trip. I visited Cape Coast Castle at the beginning of the semester with my program, but going back and seeing yet another place where the same horrific events happened just drove the history home even further.

It was a beautiful day: blue skies, white clouds, the ocean immediately next to the castle bringing in a pleasant breeze. Perfect for visiting the bright white slave castle. Maybe. We walked in to the inner courtyard and headed first to the female dungeons. Inside one of the chambers was a staircase that led up to the governor’s quarters. Even centuries later, the smell still lingers. I hadn’t noticed it at Cape Coast though the floors there were inches thick from the years of slaves’ excrement from lack of drainage. But the smell…maybe because it’s something you can actually sense it seems more real.

In the center of the female dungeons was a smaller courtyard. The women were filed out into the space, the governor stood on the roof, looked down and took his pick of the women, covered in the dirt, grime, and waste matter from not having been cleaned in weeks. The chosen slave was cleaned, given small food and water, dressed and sent up the staircase so the governor could relieve himself. Some became his mistresses. If any had children, they were sent away until they were about three. Then they were brought back and educated in the church at the castle, taught that they were better than the black slaves and children that they were surrounded by. This of course only helped to perpetuate the system of the minority having power over the majority.

It was also interesting to see the literally hierarchy as the slaves dungeons were on the castle’s bottom floor, the junior officers’ mess was on the church building’s second floor, and the governor’s quarters were on the very top floor of the castle.

After the castle tour, we walked down to the wharf for a few minutes. About ten men were half-way through pulling a net onto the dock from the boat. One of the guys in our group is into photography and of course was snapping away. They were pretty upset with this and tried to give Alex and myself Ghanaian names.

[Elmina Castle in Cape Coast]

[shot from the courtyard in the female dungeons]

[when the Governor wanted company, the women were filed into the courtyard, he stood on the roof, three stories up, and took his pick of the unkempt, disheveled women. the chosen one was cleaned, given small food and water, clean clothes, and sent upstairs to the waiting governor.]

[walking out of the passage to the female dungeons]

[the church in the middle of Elmina. the top floor was the junior officers' mess. here, also, the governor's mulatto children were brought to be educated and taught that they were more elite than the slaves and black children.]

[thought it was interesting that doorways were so small]

[exit door. I think the ocean used to come up this far?]

[to the Governor's quarters. the inferiors are on the bottom level of the castle; the higher your status, literally the higher up you were]

[Austin and the letter from a foreign official acknowledging the horrors that occurred in Elmina]

[soldiers who got in trouble were put in this cell. the guide filed us in and closed the door on us to make the point.]

[outside the cell were these rails used by soldiers for exercise. Michael, our tour guide, thought he was cool. :) which he was!]

[view from above the castle entrance. to the left is the ocean which encompasses the land the castle is on and turns into the river here. to the left of the yellow building is a wharf we visited after.]

[left view from the governor's quarters]

[straight view from the governor's quarters]

[boats; one undergoing repair]

[the ocean comes around the castle and turns into the river to the left leading to the wharf]

[boat repair]

[Kosi (a tour guide in training), me, and Austin]

[the whole group: Michael, Austin, Alex, Kwame, me, Elena, Kimberly, Keith]

[everyone looking grand again, plus Kosi, minus Michael, and me looking a bit lost]

[so Austin thinks he's cool. of course, he is.]

[fishermen bringing in their nets at the wharf we stopped at. they didn't like that one of our friends kept taking pictures and they tried to give me a Ghanaian name. they were quite fun.]

[look, Ma, I'm taking pictures of my food! :) chicken, salad (more like coleslaw), jollof rice, and shito sauce. delicious! I'm actually going to miss this. loads.]

[you can see the ocean!]

[one of the better window shots while leaving Cape Coast]

[ditto. plus cool clouds.]

Adventures at Ada Beach

19-20 October 2013

There is absolutely way too much to catch up on. I hate it when I do this to myself. I was looking back in my journal and found things that I’d forgotten that I hadn’t blogged. Just great.

Anyways. We [Bre, Camirra, and Amber] set off just after 9 Saturday morning for Ada beach. Bre and Amber had been before and helped guide us through getting a trotro at the station behind the mall, then at Tema roundabout to Ada. The ride was pretty uneventful. We got to the Volta River and were ferried over to the Maranatha Beach Camp, picking up some other guests along the way.

Maranatha is really unique because on one side of the island is the Volta River and on the other, over a levy, is the Atlantic Ocean. When we arrived a large group of kids were there for a day excursion. As soon as we got in the water, the girls swarmed us grabbing our hands, laughing, singing, and asking our names. They were so fun! The youngest was maybe 8 and the oldest about 14. It was relaxing to just be silly girls. I asked some if they knew how to swim. They didn’t know how! So we spent some time just putting our faces under water and pulling ourselves around on the bottom of the 2 ft. water. The girls were so excited to see me put my entire head under…that was a big deal, so we stuck to just faces and blowing bubbles. Some of their brothers came over and tried to show off, going completely under water and kicking a few feet.

After a late lunch, I grabbed my journal and walked to the right of the camp a ways to write. As I was writing, some kids came out from a village behind the levy to fly a kite and play football. Some came over to introduce themselves and ask my name. One boy, Achu, saw my camera and asked to take pictures. I have a few blurry pictures of myself and some of the kids and one of the sunset. Then, he wanted to take videos. After showing him the buttons, he ran off and recorded his friends playing football. As I stood and watched, one of the little ones, Jennifer I think she was three, stayed near me, just stood there in her waistbeads touching my leg. They were all adorable!

That night, there was a bonfire, ate wonderful tilapia [there’s definitely an advantage to being next to the water], and went for a walk on the beach before going to bed. Walking brought another sighting of Orion’s belt and an empty washed-up sea turtle [or tortoise, as Desmond our ferrie driver told me] shell that was quite stinky.

I set my alarm for 6 and of course still missed the sunrise, but the sky was gorgeous nonetheless as I dragged myself up over the levy and stood shivering a bit in the breeze next to the other girls. I told them about the shell, but it had already washed back out. At this point, some of the dogs that hung around the camp were on the beach, the little ones chasing the tons of crabs that scuttled along the beach. I started running to catch up with one and the others began to follow. This turned into running down the beach, turning left to go alongside the seawall, going right where the wall ended, and running all the way the end of the spit of land. So many times I wished I had my camera. At the end of the spit, I stopped and went to talk to one of the three fishermen on the shore. “Seaman,” as he called himself, had a cast net. I told him he looked like my dad because my dad worked with fish, too. “You want to buy some fish?” “Oh, no thanks, I don’t have any money. I’m a student.” He went and threw the net, but didn’t come back with anything. I told him thanks, said goodbye, and started back for the camp. Though I walk much more on campus here than at home, my legs were still sore. The dogs had gone off, but came back when I called them...haha that was great fun! :) We ran back to the seawall, this time with more walking breaks, I picked up a few shells, and we made our way back to camp for breakfast.

Breakfast and a few coconuts later, we found ourselves boarding the ferry to catch a trotro out of Ada. On the way, Desmond drove between this large ship and the chain that held its anchor. Had I stretched out my hand, I could have easily touched the ship!

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. I of course wished we’d been able to come on Friday. I wanted one more night. One more bonfire. One more sunrise. One more run.

[taken post run. see the rock wall about mid-way? that's the seawall. see the spit of land going out behind the wall more to the left? yeah, the dogs and I ran to the end of that. farther than it looks and simply lovely.]

[Volta River side. here, the tide is out and you can walk in places where it's usually 1-2 feet deep. quite cool]

[footballer, Achu is one of the middle ones, Michael on the right]

[there was one mosquito net in the whole hut. when I mentioned this to Winfred he said, "If you get bitten, it's free!" of course, none of us had mosquito troubles, which was a nice change]