Cape Coast, Ghana

The waves pound on the shores of Cape Coast. The water crashes against the rocks. The sea is angry. It roars.

It is the same sea that brought in slave ships from Britain as well as traders from countries you might not realise such as Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. It is the same sea that took those ships, now full of human cargo, out to the new world. It is the same sea where hundreds of thousands and possibly many more died in middle passage. So many lost souls, so much horror, anguish and humiliation we could never comprehend, transpired on these seas and within the “castles” which overlook it.

Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle are the biggest of the slave forts that dot the Ghanian coast. The facades of the castles are eerie but also are striking in their architectural beauty. A bizarre and confronting contrast to the ongoings in the dungeons below that spanned over 400 years.

The dungeons are unsurprising small, completely dark and suffocating rooms without ventilation or drainage in the bowels of the castle. Dungeons were divided into male and female areas. Each of the several cramped spaces held 250 captives, roughly a total of 1,000 people at a time. These were proud people who were once leaders, warriors and educators in their community. They were people with families, roots, culture, traditions and ties to their land, now reduced to chains - reduced to awaiting an unknown fate in the dark, in their own waste, terrified and with no way out. Horrifying doesn’t even begin to describe it.

It is a shameful past that we must remember and never commit again. Yet slavery shockingly still exists in present day and not just physically but emotionally and mentally as well. It is the responsibility of us all to stand up and speak up, and never to forget our humanity. Our voices are powerful and needed now more than ever. Cape Coast is a powerful, shocking and sobering reminder of what happens when we turn a blind eye to humanity in favour of profit and power.