January 25, 2011

A Cape coast morning and the first day of sunshine blue sky we've had since our arrival.

The Cape Coast slave castle is right by the ocean, built on an outcropping of red rock with a long beach on either side. It's a white washed castle with blue shutters, the main tower is a crenellated octagon. I just learned the word crenellated.

The tour started in the male slave dungeon. After descending a steep, dark passage, the dungeon opened up into five small rooms that held 200 people each, for three months. The arched ceilings were rough brick but the floors were worn smooth. The room farthest from the entrance had three small holes on one end for ventilation and through which rain water was allowed to run. The rainwater trickled down into a small, shallow channel that served as a the sewer. At the opposite end of the room there was a larger hole  through which the guards kept watch. The guards threw food and water to the prisoners from this hole too. It was unspeakably cruel.

We toured the rest of the castle and its many rooms. There was a women's cell where the women who  had resisted rape were imprisoned. There was a square of the floor that had been left unexcavated when the castle was restored. It was about 3 inches thick; hard packed dirt and food and blood and flesh and waste.

Quite a moving experience.

Later, in the museum, we learned about Henry "Box" Brown, a slave who mailed himself to freedom.

Oh yeah, and, in one of the dungeons there was a shrine. It had been there before the fort was built and had been forced to move. After the fort was restored, the shrine was rebuilt. As we stood outside later, blinking in the blinding sun, a priest and two attendants came to take care of the shrine. They beat a small drum as they walked. The priest was elaborately dressed in a white robe, with small white dots painted on his face and white and blue paint on this arms. The attendants were also robed in white. One had a tattoo of a smoking skull wearing an Uncle Sam hat, underneath which was tattooed the word "Dollars". Hm.

Currently, David and I are sitting on the beach, the sun is slowly setting in the west and shining off the surf just so. It's quite anachronistic that such unspeakable things happened in a place so beautiful.

Last night in Africa.