Wednesday, July 26, 2006
A Holiday, A Holiday - we got away for a day or two!
The Slave Castle at Elmina - in the company of Wayne we visited this slave castle at Elmina - one of the very active centres of the slave trade back in the 1500 and 1600's. It is not a very pretty place to visit - and the memories it invokes are even more disgusting - this is the central area of the actual prison area - the rounded doors you see are entrances into the holding cells for women and on the other side of the courtyard, the men. This area housed also the water holding area that you can see in the middle - the top of the tank is set to the side of the opening. Aside from natural uses and collecting rain to help fill it, is was also used as a bath area for any of the slaves that the Commissioner chose to come and visit with him - they'd just throw them in and fish them out and sneak them up the back stairs to the commissioner's bedroom.
This is one of women's holding rooms - it is about 40 feet long and about 14 feet wide - with the entrance you see in the picture. If you notice the color of the floor this is reflective of the fact they were never permitted to leave the cell for any reason other than a visit to the commissioner and they estimated they might have had 200 or so crowded in here at one time. The red stain is evidence of the blood, excrements, and other leavings that accumulated during their stay. Mortality rate was very high - not simply in the castle, but also among those who didn't appear to be strong enough and so they were just turned loose - 100 of miles away from home or more and left to the animals or starvation. To be continued......................# posted by Ghana Gazette @ 12:40 PM 
