Cape Coast and slave castles

What a lucky day! Two emails in less than 12 hours! I had to take advantage of the free internet and power!
For the last couple of days we went to the southern coast of Ghana to the town of Cape Coast. The rest of the group stayed in a shwanky place that was $150 a night. Even though it was split between the 5 people in the room, I opted out for the $10 a night place by myself. It wasn’t too bad, but the power went out and I had to guide myself by lamp. There was also no water from the shower and I had to bathe in the sink. The drivers were sad that I wasn’t staying with the group. They understood that it was because of the money. They then told me that I should never pay for a hotel in Accra and that I should stay with one of them. They also said that they would hook me up with free bus rides while I am here and even offered to let me stay in their hotel while in Kumasi. It was very touching to see how they wanted to take care of me because they felt bad for me. I tried to explain that it was because I was trying to save money and that they didn’t have to worry about me. I also told them that if for any reason they came to the U.S. that they could stay at my home also. It always surprises me how hospitable people who have little are compared to how I am.

I ate dinner with the rest of the group at their hotel. While at dinner, our drivers became very angry at the waiter because he wouldn’t serve them and disrespected them. They said that he should treat them the same as the whites. He was black himself but they said that there are people that look down at them because they think that they are getting a huge portion of the white peoples money. I was one of many times that I felt embarrassed to be white.

The next morning, I awoke to screaming pigs being slaughtered. I scared the crap out of me because I thought they were girls screaming. People get up so early here in Ghana. There were people selling things outside of my window at 530am. The bus then came and picked me up at my hotel and we went to a national park and went on a canopy walk. It was really cool to be up in the trees around 50-100 feet from the groupnd walking on a single wooden plank . Sometimes I was pretty worried whether or not everything was screwed in all the way but they have never had any deaths so far. We saw a couple of birds and heard monkeys but the snakes, leopards, and most of the other animals were all nocturnal.

We then went to lunch at a restaurant on a crocodile pond. They were hanging out 5 feet from the wall of the restaurant. They seemed pretty calm and I wanted to touch them but I didn’t. I got the spaghetti which has been my staple over here because of the cost of the food is around $8 a meal and spaghetti is usually $4.

After lunch we went to the slave castle of El Mina. The Portuguese built it first to be used as a station for their missionary work in Africa. Then a hundred years later, one of the priests observed how the tribes would conquer other tribes and use them as labor. And he thought that African slavery would be beneficial in the Americas because all of the Indians were dying (because of the diseases and the work load) and the Africans were hardy. However the practice of the locals was much different than what they Europeans started. The slaves became part of the village. They ate with the people and married with the people and worked along side with the people. They were assimilated into the village more than used as slaves. The Portuguese would buy the slaves from conquering villages because they would sell them guns and powder in order to keep their business going and empowering the Africans. They would separate the women from the men and put them in dungeons. They would then rape both the women and the men and beat them. The governor’s residence was right above the court yard where they kept the women. He would pick out a woman every night to sleep with and then the soldiers were free to rape her after he was done. Some of the women died just from this. If they were impregnated they were sent out of the castle to a place to have the babies. The children were then raised and made to believe that they were better than the “regular” black people and would become leaders in the community. Many people still have Portuguese and Dutch last names in Cape Coast. They would also have the disobedient women hold a 50lb cannon ball in the courtyard all day long and beat them if they dropped it in front of the other women slaves to serve as examples. They would keep 150 of the women in a room about the size of our family room and play room with buckets for their waste. They would give them two meals a week because they said that they only wanted the strong to be slaves and the weak would die off. There was also a room that had a skull and cross bones where they would put the people who were trying to rebel. They would then lock them up until they all died. I thought how awful that would be seeing all of your friends starve to death and knowing that you would die the same way.
The ironic thing about all of this is that these people went to church right before they did all of these atrocities. They actually had one room that said “God is only in this room and not outside.” It is interesting how people can justify to the point to commit these horrible deeds.
Well on this happy note, I am going to bed and going to kontempo, a city in northern Ghana with some other med students. My project is done and so it is time to explore. I will email you again as time allows.
Scott