Magic Bus Day!

Greetings readers of this blog. My name is Sam Webb and I just graduated with my Degree in Mechanical Engineering (this is called getting away with it). I’m super pumped to be back in Ghana at the Village of Hope, and to be working on this project. I’m also excited to be writing to you today, and I plan on going and logging on to the Wi-Fi at the Network at the academy, and uploading this post so you get something same day.

Today we took a rest day and joined the general mission team (a diverse group of students who are here to play with kids and help them learn, and shadowing at the clinic here) on a touristy day where we went to a rainforest and a slave castle.

Rainforest

The rainforest we went to is one of seven Ghanaian National Parks. It was around 36,000 hecta-acres, and was home to a whole slew of animals including, Elephants, Jaguars, 5 types of monkeys, Soldier Ants (maybe not the real name, but that’s what they called them), wild dogs, and several more that our tour guide listed off and I forgot. There we did a canopy walk, which is one of the highest in the world, at over 300 ft. off of the forest floor. It was super cool and everyone had a good time walking along the rope bridges. Except Kyle. Kyle was holding a Go-pro in one hand and his Digital Camera in the other and was looking through the viewer of one or the other.

Elmina (Slave Castle)

So the name of castle we visited is Elmina, it is one of the 50+ forts that the Portuguese built along the Coast of Ghana. Elmina itself was built in the year 1484, and originally the Portuguese used it as a fort as they traded Gold and Ivory. Over the past centuries it has traded hands between the Portuguese, to the Dutch, then to the English. Similarly over the years, it’s primary exports changed from Gold and Ivory, to the evil enterprise of slavery. Our tour guide named Richmond did a fantastic job of relaying its history, and his parting wish was that we take what we’ve learned and share it, so I’ll do my best to share it with you.

Richmond started us off by taking us to one of the dungeons where the men were held. Instantly upon entering, the coastal breeze turned still and damp. Mold was visible along the walls and ceilings. He explained that the room we were standing in housed 85 men, even though our group of 22 filled it halfway. There were holes in the walls about 9 ft. above the floor, where the nails were that held their arms in shackles above their heads. Claw marks were visible where people had struggled against their captors. Richmond explained that the slaves would spend three months in these dungeons getting fed once a day until eventually they passed through the door of no return. Brick floors, with no beds, and no toilets.

We continued on to another dungeon that held 150 men, but was not significantly larger. Outside of that was a courtyard with a cannonball loosely rolling around in an indent in the dirt. Naturally, I rolled it around with my foot to notice its weight and ponder its use. Richmond came over to explain that the Governor would often pick one of the female slaves. She would be washed in the center of the courtyard, and escorted up to his quarters. If she refused, she would be shackled to the cannonball in the square, and left for a day with no food or water. After that time if she could lift the cannonball above her head (25kg = 55lbs.) she could be returned to the female dungeon. If she failed, she would be taken and given over to the soldiers. Similarly, Men who were part of revolts, would be locked in a room, up to 30 men at a time, with no air flow, and left to there until the last one was dead.

Richmond continued taking us through male dungeons, until we hit a room that had a small doorway, no more than 4 ft. tall. This led to another room, which had a slide running through the center of it. Richmond explained that when it rained, the water would wash out the feces, which would collect at the bottom of the dungeon cells. This would then drain out of through this slide, eventually exiting the fortress through the door of no return. Richmond explained that when the boats where ready to be loaded for the transatlantic the women would be tossed down this slide, while the men would be loaded through the door that we had just walked through. He explained that this room was often the first time that families and friends would see each other for the first time in three months.

We continued through another doorway that was even shorter than the first, and finally entered a room that had a narrow slit in the side of the wall that overlooked the beach, where you could see some Ghanaian fisherman kicking a soccer ball around on the beach after coming in for the day. This slit was the door of no return. In the room were wreaths, which people had brought, presumably to mourn their ancestors. Richmond asked us to take a moment and sing the first few lines of Amazing Grace, a song written by John Newton, a slaver, turned Christian, who fought against slavery. Haunting does not begin to describe the atmosphere. Richmond then said that several years ago, some bodies of former slaves were exhumed from America, brought back to Elmina, and passed in reverse through the door of no return to symbolically close it and begin the healing.

Overall this Elmina was not a story of white guilt. It was a story of how dark humanity can be. How broken an institution can be, even though it had a church built into its walls that still stand. It was heartbreaking, and it was an experience that took great maturity on behalf of our team to experience and digest. Overall, over 400 million slaves where trafficked off of the Ivory coast and Congo regions of Africa, with 264 million of them dying before ever reaching a boat, Richmond juxtaposed this by reminding us that the tragedy of the Holocaust where 6 million Jews and other minorities were killed.

As a team tonight we digested the day. We talked about how our educational experience in high school history prepared us, or failed to prepare us for today. Human trafficking for child workers, fishing on Lake Volta is one of the primary problems resulting in the orphans that Village of Hope takes in.

My take away from today happened when looking through the books in the Elmina gift shop. There were dozens of books there about colonization, slave trade, missionaries, and all of the other political influences that have shaped Ghana to be the country it could be today. It was more books than I could read in two years. Which really drilled in that this problem is so much larger than anything I could solve. Really, it’s larger than what I can even help solve. But Village of Hope is helping children who have suffered from these problems, and then I can work with a team to solve a wastewater problem at Village of Hope. It’s a small piece of huge puzzle, but that’s how God works to fight evil, and I’m okay being his tool.

Kyle walking across the bridge after he fell.

The "door of no return."

Group at the top of Elmina.