Ghana: Cape Coast Castle

After doing the canopy walk at Kakum National Rain Forest we drove to the Cape Coast Castle. On our drive over my dad had us stop at Cape Coast Beach because he knew that I would want to get some pictures. I honestly thought it was such a sweet gesture (and wasn't expecting it at all) because I'm aware that my excessive picture taking can be annoying.

After the quick stop at Cape Coast Beach we headed to Cape Coast Castle. I'll preface this by saying that this is not an easy tour to do. It is quite emotional to be honest. To this day it is hard to wrap my mind around slavery. How anyone thought this was OK is so beyond me. How? To steal people from their homes, separate people from their families and then transport them to a new place to be forced into slavery. To be beaten, killed, hung … treated worse than animals. For people to be thought as PROPERTY. It’s heartbreaking that this atrocity was legal and that people thought nothing of it. God help us all.

Cape Coast Castle was the center of the British trans-Atlantic slave trade from 1664-1807.
This was my second time visiting, yet I still felt a tightness in my chest as though it were my first time. From the looks around me I believe everyone felt that tightness.

Our tour guide did an impeccable job while we toured the slave dungeons. He turned off the lights in several dungeons that way we could imagine for just a short while how it was for Africans stolen from their homes. As many as 200 males were stuffed into these tiny dungeons with extremely small windows with little to no ventilation. Our tour group was less than 50 people and even all of us in the dungeons at the same time felt claustrophobic and crowded. I couldn’t imagine 200+ people stuffed in them.

There was a condemned cell (for those who tried to fight back) that had no windows whatsoever as the Africans who entered here were to die. They were deprived of food and water. The walls were covered with claw marks which meant that many tried to free themselves. Can you even imagine? Darkness, no food or water … people around you dying because of pure heartlessness. Our tour guide explained that only one of the dungeons had been excavated so the ground we were standing on was still stained with blood, feces, excrement, human bones, etc in the dungeons. It was hard not to feel sick and I saw many on the tour wipe away tears. To be honest, the tears is the right emotion to have because this atrocity happened to human beings and we should never forget.

We saw the quarters of the Portuguese who built the castle and it was such a contrast but not shocking. Big windows, ballrooms, big spaces with views of the ocean. I can just imagine how beautifully decorated these spaces were and it makes me sick to know that just feet away human beings were squished into dungeons not fit for animals.

I just took pictures of their view because I just couldn't take pictures of the spaces they enjoyed.

I’ll admit that I went back and forth on whether it was acceptable to smile in one of the pictures and in the end I decided that it was. Here’s why. This was a place of absolute sorrow for Africans. With this disgusting piece of our history it’s a wonder that Africans are still here. That alone is something to smile about and feel an overwhelming sense of pride. They tried to bury us, they just didn’t know we were seeds. The resilience of Africans is one to truly be amazed by.

There was something different about the tour this time around that wasn’t done the last time I was here. At the end of the tour we walked through the Door of No Return. This was the door that Africans went through to get on ships to the Americas. This was their last passageway on African soil. However, this time when we walked through the Door of No Return, our tour guide had us look back and the door on the other side read, “THE DOOR OF RETURN.” He had us all walk back through The Door of Return. I felt a sort of relief that I was not expecting to feel.

The door of no return.









Door of Return





Akwaaba
(means Welcome)



A beautiful plant, in my favorite color, that I saw at the end of our tour.