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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“The feeling there was very strange to me, a reminder of the one I had in Oswiecim's (Aushwitz) concentration camp” |
As most of you know, from the 16th to the 19th century, millions of black slaves were transported from Africa to the Americas. The Gold Coast (Ghana, Togo, Benin, and a few neighbouriong countries) was the region most affected by this slave trade. All along the coast, European powers (Portuguese, Dutch, British, Swedish, Danish, French, and German) had built trading forts to protect their trade with the african kingdoms. These fortresses were at first built to protect their gold and ivory trade, but later slave trade took over as the most lucrative business. Slaves were brought from the continent over to the coast (by means of slave raids organized by slave merchants), and then kept in the forts' dungeons for a few months in horrible, inhumane conditions. Those that protested and tried to escape were put in special smaller dungeons where they would be left to die of thirst and hunger.
When the ships came, the stronger of the slaves were put on board, and were brought to the Americas, again in horrible conditions. Those who survived the journey (a huge proportion did not) were then sold and worked in miserable conditions until they died. A third of the slaves were brought to Brazil, another third was brought to the Caribbean and the last third went to the United States and a bit to the rest of the Americas. This free labor made those who took advantage of it immensly rich.
We had the chance to visit two of the forts where slaves were kept: one in Cape Coast, and another in Elmina, the oldest European building south of the Sahara (built in 1482, 10 years before Cristobal Colon stumbled upon America, which was China to him). The tours were nicely organized, and we got the chance to visit the men's and women's dungeons. The feeling there was very strange to me, a reminder of the one I had in Oswiecim's (Aushwitz) concentration camp... It is definitely worth seeing these fortresses, to get a glimpse of the centuries of suffering endured by the victimes of this shamefull part of history.
While on one of those tours, we encountered two Autralians, who had just started their year-long around-the-world trip (as most Australians who travel do), Danica and Marty. We went together to another one of Ghana's cool toursitic sport, the Kakum National Park. In this rainforest, one can walk from tree to tree on suspended bridges 40m in the air. These bridges are the only ones of that kind in all of Africa. The whole thing is built by Canadians, so we weren't scared of it collapsing (Marge says that if it was Burkinabe-built there is no way she would have gone), but it was still a pretty intense walk in the canopy. The bridges were swinging, and on the last stretch, there was a dude repairing one of the bridge's joints... ummm, wtf?
Our next destination was a beach resort by the little town of Butre, one hour West of Cape Coast.
previous travel blog entry
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