Cape Castle – A place of darkness and terror

One can barely imagine what it must have been like for the thousands of slaves that once passed through these doors. The dungeons where they were kept, sometimes for weeks on end had no facilities. They would have to squirm around in their own body wastes and were given barely enough food to survive. it is not surprising then that many of them did not survive. A trip here is a poignant trip into a dark period of history.

Shackled and terrified, they were kept in confined spaces with the only light coming from a small crack in the wall and that was only used so the traders could see inside.

At some point these poor wretched souls would have been dragged to the door to waiting boats, probably fearing that whatever they had endured till then, worse was still to come.

The women often fared worse than the men with many of them being raped.
This was because the men who were stationed at the forts rarely came with their wives because of the risk of tropical diseases especially malaria.

Sadly Cape Castle is one of many such forts built along the coast of Ghana.

They were originally established as trade routes by the Portuguese, but as in the case of Cape Castle it then fell into the hands of Dutch before being taken over by the British.

One of the most famous Governors was George Maclean (1830-1844). While on a visit to the UK in 1836 he met and married the poet Letitia Landon. and brought her back to Cape Coast. Sadly she died two months later. Goerge Mclean is credited with bringing an end to the slave trade not only here but along 300 kms of West Africa’s coastline. Both George and Letitia are buried in the courtyard.

Slave trading grew in response to an.increased demand by the Americas and Caribbean for labour. No one has the exact figures but it was estimated to be anywhere between 12-25 million with one third going to Brazil, another third to the Caribbean and the remainder to the rest of the Americas.

You can find plenty of information at the small museum inside the forts grounds.

There is a small entrance fee but this will include a tour. After the tour you are free to walk around yourself to admire some of the stunning views of what is now a charming fishing village.

Tinyteddy’s feedback: “Yeah that’s me folks sitting as you can see on the wall and looking out to sea with a rather subdued expression. Hey I’m only a simple little teddy. This whole experience was a lot for me to get my head around”