Cape Coast - Elmina

Labor Day weekend we went to Cape Coast.

The drive along the coast was so beautiful and I was flooded with delight.

History
Cape Coast was positioned in the midst of the maritime trade routes and was the heart of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It was the capital of Britain’s Gold Coast colony. The ownership of this town, like Ghana, and like many colonies, traded hands many a times. First the Portuguese, then the Swedes, the Danes, the Dutch, and at last the British. Cape Coast was a fishing town hundreds of years ago and it is again today. Its greatest tourist attraction are the Elmina and Cape Coast Castles. We went to the Elmina Castle, which is the oldest European building in Africa. It is the largest and best-preserved building of its type in West Africa.

I looked out this window and tried to imagine the state of mind of the millions of slaves that had stayed in this structure over hundreds of years…


This was probably the first time they had seen the ocean. To me, the ocean is a beautiful thing that can take you anywhere and everywhere. To them, the ocean was a terrible thing that could take them anywhere. They were leaving their families, their culture, and their dreams. They were entering a terrifying unknown.