Cape Coast & Elmina Castles

Still no internet connection anywhere that we can find, which I've heard from a local accountant that I met at Asaasi Yaa is pretty par for the course for Ghana as a whole. So, I'm able to post updates on our SAGE guide's phone, but not able to post pictures. I have been putting together pictures from our days in offline saved posts that I can then post when I have an internet connection, which may not happen until our layover in Amsterdam on our way home.

Today we visited both the Cape Coast & Elmina "Castles", which are actually historic slave trading forts on the coast of Ghana. Slaves were brought from different parts of Africa to these forts, & others like it, to be traded for goods and shipped out to Europe and the Americas as slave laborers. We learned all about the history, the process, & what these people went through. As many students commented in our evening reflection discussion, they have learned about this in history class at school, but to really be there & see where it happened makes it come to life that much more. As a social studies educator it is very meaningful for me to see this deep kind of learning taking place among the students.

The extent of suffering that millions of enslaved people endured is beyond description. Torn from their homes & families, seperated from their children & loved ones, those who were enslaved were shackled & held in dark, dank, overcrowded, unsanitary dungeons until they were shipped out. The conditions on board the slave ships were equally horrendous, if not more so. Overall, more than 10 million Africans were exported across the Atlantic from the African continent as a whole, and of this number the majority were from West Africa.

We are staying at the beautiful One Africa House tonight, which is owned by an African American that moved to Ghana several years ago. We have been eating so well, and the food here is very tasty. Everyone is healthy and having a wonderful time together. Tomorrow we leave for the rural village of Okurase where we will be for the majority of our trip - we are all very much looking forward to this! Blessings to all at home & thanks for your prayers.   ~Julie