I'm going to start off this post with a collage of my most memorable sight in Ghana, women carrying incredible loads on their heads. We all said our necks would never be able to handle it but our guide assured us that these women start carrying all kinds of things from a young age and that some can carry up to three times their weight on their heads. I don't know about that but the craziest thing we saw was a woman carrying her black, Singer sewing machine atop a board on her head! We passed her by so quickly no one was able to get a photo.
Another thing I loved seeing in our travels were the sleeping babies nestled next to their mamas. This sweet lady was at the port and allowed me to take this photo of she and her little one. I think it is the beauty of the faces we've seen in Africa that will stay with me longest.
Takoradi, pronounced "tahkrahdi" is an industrial port on the southwest coast of Ghana, along what is known as the Gold Coast, due to the alluvial gold that has been, and is mined there. Gold has been traded along here since the 12 century when it was the Asante Kingdom.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive, coming to trade in gold, ivory and eventually, slaves. By the 16th century the latter had taken over as the main trade commodity. The Portuguese then ceded the territory to the Dutch in 1642, in whose hands it remained until they relinquished their claim to the British in 1874 and Ghana became a Crown Colony. There are still many decaying evidences of colonial architecture throughout this part of the country.
Now while you may never have heard of Tettah Quarshie before, he is an important historical figure in most of our lives. And since you've never heard of him you may ask why is he so important.? He is the agriculturalist responsible for introducing the production of cocoa beans into Ghana. Currently 50% of the world's cocoa exports come from this country, combined with those from Ivory Coast. Bottom line, you can thank him for most of the chocolate you consume!
A unique sight we saw in our travels were these posters and billboards in various and sundry places. They were to announce the funeral celebrations for the person whose picture was on them. Bob McCullough, who had served a mission in Ghana, shared that these are used in an effort to get people to come to the funeral because traditionally those who come will donate money to the family of the deceased. It's an interesting way to help pay for the funeral and help the family with other financial needs. Depending on the wealth of the attendee they may give a few dollars or a few hundred. Sometimes these posters will stay up for two or three months before a funeral is finally held.
We saw a lot of these types of housing, and many even more humble,
and just a few of these types of homes.
It was fun to see at least five chapels on our drive. Bob told us sometimes the church is called "The Church of the Black and White Sign". There was a sign like that outside of each building.
One other interesting thing you saw all over were business signs that had something religious related to them, like "God First Aluminum" or "God's Time is the Best Salon". They had us smiling! Ghana is a predominantly Christian country.
A few more of the ladies we saw carrying goods on their heads. No idea how many of these boxes like that on the lower right that we saw being carried, most of them with bread inside. Many of them had locks on them as well.
So many enterprising people along the road, several were selling dresses, the one on the right was selling bags of small rocks.
We saw several of these open air sewing centers where several ladies would sit working at sewing machines. After I saw the lady carrying hers on her head I had to wonder if these ladies did the same and brought their machine back and forth with them to work.
This spot had all your cell phone needs, then another with colorful dresses outside a two story commercial building.
More business names to make me smile, "Bright Kids International School", and "Plumbing Palace", the latter complete with toilets out front.
I have to wonder what less industrialized countries did before plastic lawn chairs were invented. Probably used the floor, or a rug I'm guessing. Other stalls we saw were selling foodstuffs,
all sorts of shoes, beans, or grains,
sodas and water, or tires and motor oil.
We were told it was mango season in Ghana and these looked like beauties, just wish we would have been able to try some. The pineapples looked good as well, along with some big watermelons. And in case you wondered, I did see one woman carrying a large watermelon on her head.
Every once in a while there was a small field of corn, often with straggling plants scattered around rather than in rows like this one.
We did, unfortunately, see alot of trash along the roadside throughout our drive.
All kinds of things were transported in these three-wheeled "trucks", anything from people, to dirt, to consumer goods.
We saw two of three of these overgrown cemeteries.
Ghana was lush and green after the deserts of Angola and Namibia.
This was a humble little roadside business.
Like other African nations we've been in lately, Ghana is gearing up for national elections. Our guide, Kwisi (which means Sunday, his Christian name is Harry), told us there are 23 different political parties in the country but only two of them are dominant. From what we hear they all struggle with corruption. Someday I sure hope the African people get a share of the wealth of their countries, not just those who rule them.
After driving for almost exactly two hours we arrived at Elmina, meaning the mine, a city which was named by the Portuguese who founded it in the 15th century for the gold they mined here. Eventually it became more profitable for the Ghanian chiefs to sell their slaves to the Europeans instead, making Elmina one of the major slave centers of the Gold Coast.
Traffic was busier in this fishing town where the market is a lively place almost every day of the week, as we would soon learn for ourselves.
Before the Fish Market we headed to Elmina Castle, also known as St. George's Castle, a place where thousands of slaves were held before being shipped to the New World. It is the oldest European castle fortress south of the Sahara Desert.
Many of the original cannon still sit at this lovely, flat spot on the coast between Takoradi and Accra. The fortress itself was completed in 1482 so it spans a history of over 500 years.
Vendors were trying to sell their wares as we headed in through the entrance gate.
Inside the main courtyard is this chapel, the first Catholic church in Ghana. It's hard to imagine worshipping in the midst of what would become a slave depot.
Looking the other direction you see where the soldiers were housed, all the slaves were kept in the dungeons below. The original structure wasn't this tall, it was enlarged by the British when they took over ownership in the 19th century.
This door led to the female slave dungeons where up to 600 women at a time were kept in horrible, cramped, conditions, with little food to sustain them.
The only time they really saw the water in this courtyard well was to wash themselves if the fort's commander took a liking to one and wanted her brought to his bed.
She would be taken up these stairs off the dungeon and then returned once he was finished with her.
It's hard to fathom 600 women in a room of this size, stuck here with little food and water for anywhere from one to two months, sometimes even three, before being put on a ship to leave Africa behind.
Through this door you'd find the small cells used for punishment. There was one for the soldiers which had a little ventilation, and one for slaves who tried to escape, which had no ventilation. We were hot and sweating with the door open and it wasn't even the height of summer yet.
It was just a concrete box of torture where no one came out alive.
When I took this photo I just thought to myself, "Oh the stories these walls could tell!" But I'm not sure my heart would be able to stand hearing them all.
Opposite the female dungeons were the male dungeons, as men and women slaves were kept completely separated.
As descendants of the slaves have returned to visit Elmina Castle they have left remembrances for their ancestors who came through here.
On one of the floors above you had the much more comfortable Officer's Mess.
The slaves would never have seen this view at this UNESCO World Heritage Site.
When they realized that Elmina was built on an indefensible spot, the Dutch, who took over Elmina in 1637, added Fort Coenraadsburg in the 1660's to provide protection. It also served as a prison for Europeans, and later as a hospital.
Today some of the cannons of Elmina overlook the bustling fish market,
as well as out to sea.
I have to admit it felt a little weird to be doing smiling photos in a place where so much pain and suffering took place. But it is also one where the guide here told us they are working to put the past in the past, create unity, and move forward.
We were next off to the chaos of the Elmina Fish Market where the men fish and the women run the businesses.
You actually have to go in through a certain space that's the entrance into the market itself, although there are vendors outside selling goods, this is a working market inside.
Check out the recycled bottles holding different oils. And this smiling lady took the payment required for the women in our group to enter the market. No payment required for men to enter.
It was loud and crowded here, a place you would either love or hate. I loved the slice of life it showed me.
All kinds of fish were in basket, buckets, and pots here in the market, but thankfully it didn't smell too much, although Jane and LeaAnn declined to go in.
Many of the women come to buy fish, others come to sort it, others to smoke it, more on the latter in a few moments.
One tired baby,
and another absolutely beautiful face, a sweet woman who allowed me to take her photo, which not everyone was willing to let you do in this market. We needed to be respectful of that. I had a couple of people get mad a me when I asked to even take a photo. I get it though, no one wants to feel like they're on display, a curiosity, just because they are living their life.
These were some of the largest fish that I saw.
A tiny sleeping one.
These were random shots from larger photos or video. I lost track of how many women we saw with pans of water bottles or sodas on their heads.
I got a kick out of this guy wearing a fleecy hat on such a warm day.
Fishing boats were packed side by side in the harbor. They fish every day except for Tuesdays when its considered bad luck to bring in a catch. We were there on a Wednesday so it was a pretty hopping place after a day off.
This lady was selling toys and games for the kids there.
A stack of fishing nets was off to the side. Notice all the shells pressed into the ground we walked on.
When we came upon the shipbuilders it was a little like Noah building the ark. They were using really simple tools and materials.
This man allowed us to take a photo as he was painting a finished boat.
My laughing lady who posed for me when I asked if I could take her photo.
This handsome young man was a welder who made repairs and created other things with scrap metal in his shop.
Walking through the market we were watching where we stepped, although these narrow walkways were clean of any fish guts or scales like we'd seen earlier. Not sure if this dugout was in the process of being completed or if it had seen better days.
Another ship in the process of being built along with some of the building materials.
This was some of the nastiest water I've seen in a while, a gutter that led into the harbor. Not even going to hazard a guess what might be in there.
We finally arrived at the area where the fish smoking business going on. The woman at this table was sorting fish from a bucket onto the table.
A nearby chicken, chick and drying laundry.
On the left are the racks where the fish are placed for smoking, on the right are the racks waiting to be put over the fire.
Just a couple of baby goats wandering around,
along with this cute group of kids nearby.
Not sure if all four of these little ones belong to one or both of these women who are here working smoking fish. If you look closely the one little guy may or may not be giving us the finger....
And in case you didn't notice, I zoomed in on this fuzzy little head of the baby sleeping in the aluminum bowl. The scene tugged at my heart.
Near the smoking operation was this woman making Etswe (pronounced etsoh), a staple cornmeal dish in Ghana. Kwisi said it will keep you going all day!
As we walked back to the bus I had my favorite moment of the day when this little sweetheart in the yellow pants came up next to me, took my hand to walk with me and looking up gave me the biggest smile. My heart absolutely melted. After we walked for a few moments she let go, waved, and trotted away with her buddy.
Next to the Fish Market was a small farmer's market where you could buy food, cooking utensils, and containers for storage. We didn't look around here much, just walked through as we were hot and ready to get to the bus for a bottle of water.
We drove a little further towards Accra to reach Cape Coast Castle, another UNESCO site and the youngest of the slave "castles" along the Gold Coast, having been begun in 1610 and completed in 1653 by the Swedes. It quickly changed hands, belonging briefly to the Danish and Dutch before ending up in the hands of the British in the 1660s. Until it became a slave hub, gold, ivory, and textiles made their way through here in trade.
Cape Coast is just one of forty commercial "castles" along the Gold Coast, but probably one of the best known.
Here again we found the small airless cells for those called "freedom fighters", those slaves who tried to escape.
These airless dungeons were impossible to escape from,
where three locked doors closed you in at each of these portals.
Here too are remains of cannon and stacks of cannon balls. The door on the right is an original iron coated wooden door.
Cape Coast Castle is one of the largest such structures remaining, a reminder of the thousands who passed through here during the years of the slave trade. There could be hundreds of slaves being held here at any given time. Despite the fact that Britain abolished their slave trade in 1807, and slavery in 1836, the slave trade didn't end in Ghana until 1870.
This photo is looking in the opposite direction from the last one.
The wall here runs along the edge overlooking the sea.
A plaque commemorates a visit by President Barak Obama and Michelle here in 2009.
Down we went again into the male slave dungeon,
a place where up to five different cells could hold up to 200 men at a time.
Note the small trench down the middle of the room,
and this one along the edges.
Those were supposed to carry away human waste to flush out to the sea but they didn't do the job. Most of the floor had been "cleaned" but you can see the transition on the wall between the dark, stained stone and the lighter one above, showing how high the excrement went.
They have preserved this part of the floor and blocked it off to show what it looked like before the stones were cleaned.
Here again were remembrances for ancestors who had passed through these gates.
And again, it was hard to put a real smile on your face for a photo, knowing the history here.
You can see from these photos and those from Elmina that these slave hubs were located at beautiful spots along the Ghana coast.
There was a long underground walkway that led from the dungeons to the door of no return. This is one of the small vents that allowed air and a small glimpse of light in as the shackled slaves walked to ships.
The tunnel ended here. It has now been blocked off because slaves no longer come through this space.
This would have been the final holding area before boarding the ships taking the slaves away from Africa to the Americas.
Here is the "Door of No Return", from here the shackled, weakened slaves would have been led to longboats to take them to the waiting sailing ships where they would be crammed into the holds. Many of them died in the voyage across the Atlantic, their bodies tossed overboard.
They call this the "Door of Return", it's actually the outside of the "Door of No Return". It was renamed in 1997 when the skeletons of two African slaves who had been buried in Jamaica and New York were returned to Accra, then brought to Cape Coast Castle, returned to the land they came from. The hope is that those who come here now will remember those who came before so that we remember to treat one another as the brothers and sisters that we are. It is a message of unity.
After our sobering visits to Elmina and Cape Coast it was time to head back to Takoradi. We made a brief stop to pick up some box lunches. While we waited for them I took a. photo of this shy cat,
and of some of the beautiful flowers on the restaurant grounds.
As we made our way north we eventually reached the beaches near the port,
and our home away from home. It was a short day but an enriching one as we got our quick glimpses of Ghana.
Hard
ReplyDeleteto believe that such cruelty happened A very sobering day Hard to see people living that way but beautiful peop[e and darling children