Kamikaze Canuck

Time for a little history…..

From the 15th century to the 19th century, the colonial powers of Portugal, England, and Holland fought over Ghana.   Why? 

Gold and slaves mainly. 

 

Men and women from all over West Africa were captured and marched (with little or no food/water) to castles on the coast of Ghana, where they were held in appalling conditions until they were shipped overseas as slaves.

Over the past few days, Meg and I had the opportunity to visit both of those historic castles.  Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle. 

It was a sobering reminder of a dark past that really wasn’t that long ago when you think about it.  Slavery was abolished by most countries in the early 19th century.

“If these walls could talk” I was thinking as I walked through the dungeons.  600 male slaves and 400 female slaves at a time could be held at the castle at a time – that is until a ship came in to take some away.  Many of the slaves died from disease in the holding cells from living in their own fecies and urine with little ventilation in the cells.  Other slaves tried to fight back against the soldiers by bashing them with their shackles and chains – These slaves were used as an example.   They were chained in the main square of the castle and starved to death in plain sight of the other slaves. 

 So how in the world did the Europeans gather all these millions of slaves around West Africa.  Are you ready for this?  They didn’t. 

They simple traded material goods like gin, wine, tobacco, guns, ammo, etc. to regional chiefs in exchange for the slaves.  Most of the slaves were actually gathered by fellow Africans and transported to the castles by fellow Africans who would then collect their payment. 

According to our tour guide, most of the chiefs didn’t know that these slaves were going to be transported across the Atlantic Ocean and forced into manual labour for the rest of their lives. 

The next day we visited Kakum National Park where 2 Canadian engineers (from Vancouver actually) designed and built a canopy walkway high in the rainforest in 1995. 

The canopy walkway consisted of 7 rope bridges that span 330 meters in length high in the rainforest canopy.  It was a riot but it was 30 Ghanian Cedis each ($15)

Which is CRAZY expensive here is Ghana.

 

Ok here are the pics:

The bridges actually sway a surprising amount.  Some people can’t handle the feeling of being so high up without sturdy footing.  Meg said it wasn’t her “cup of tea”.  But that may be because I was walking behind her saying things like “Geez we sure are a long ways up!” or “Does it look to you like these ropes are starting to fray?”

 Next Stop:  Lake Bosumtwe