Another major castle on Ghana’s coast is St. George’s Castle in Elmina. There is some question of how you measure it, but it could be argued that Elmina Castle is the oldest extant colonial era building in Africa. It was built in the late 1400s by the Portuguese, essentially as a trading post for various goods (predating the slave trade). The fort traded hands a few times, to the Danes, then the Dutch and eventually to the British. Over the years, the fort was changed, expanded and turned into a key slave port.
Like the Cape Coast castle, your admission fee includes a tour of the castle. It also houses a small museum in what was the Portuguese church in the courtyard. The museum is not quite as comprehensive as the one at the Cape Coast castle but still contains some interesting displays. On a side note, it is interesting that the church was converted into a storehouse and market when the Dutch took over and built their own church (apparently there was no way they could pray in the Catholic Portuguese church).
The tour itself starts in the female slave area. One of the female slave chambers can be seen in the photo below. These chambers were packed with an unbelievable number of slaves and as at Cape Coast the conditions were horrific. In the middle was a small courtyard, overlooked by the “Governor’s Balcony.” From here the governor could stand and choose a slave to be taken to his chambers through a staircase leading to a trapdoor. Refusal was, of course, met with extremely harsh punishment, including being chained in the middle of the courtyard under the hot sun with no water. Interestingly, guides at both castles made the point that schools were eventually created at both castles to educate the children of these rapes.
Again, you can contrast those conditions with those of the rulers of the castle, as seen by the bright and airy Officer’s Mess (below):
Even the jail cells show a difference (below). The one on the right hand side was for colonialists that had fallen afoul of regulations or the law. Sure, it is a jail cell, but there was a large opening to allow in fresh air and stays in the cell were relatively short. On the left hand side, appropriately marked with a skull and crossbones, was for slaves that tried to revolt or otherwise created problems. There was almost no light or ventilation.
As with Cape Coast, the Elmina castle had a narrow “Door of No Return.” In this case, the door has not been altered and you can see that it is only narrow enough to have one person pass at a time. This allowed greater control over the slaves as they moved from the castle to the outside.
In addition to being the site of Elmina Castle and nearby Fort St. Jago, Elmina is a fishing town, as you can see from the picture below of the harbor, taken from the Castle.
It is also home to a set of shrines that are very typical of this area of Ghana. In Elmina the shrines are easier to see and pictures are allowed. The shrines, called Posuban Shrines, are really the storehouses for weapons and regalia of traditional militias. These militias, called Asafo Companies, were responsible for village protection, provided other services, and were also involved in local politics. The shrines are rather fanciful things with statues that all have highly symbolic meanings. The driver I hired was able to translate for a couple of guys hanging out at one shrine. I didn’t get the meaning of all the figures, but one had to do with signaling the direction of attack of the enemy, another showed how fighters could come back from the dead to fight through the rest of the battle before finally succumbing to death, etc.
You can click on the picture to the left to see more pictures of the castle and the one on the right to see more shrine pictures.
