A Tale of Three Castles: Elmina Castle

This history is never told to pass judgement. It is never told to pass accusing fingers at a friend, No. It is never told to open old wounds or to remember the sufferings that our forefathers went through. But it’s simply told to educate one another. The history is told because of education.
These were the words of my guide in Elmina Castle, Elmina Town in Ghana. The history of the trans-Atlantic Trade is not complete without visiting Ghana. Ghana has three castles and many forts that were dedicated to the Slave Trade. The castles are Elmina, Cape Coast and Osu in Accra.This story is a bit touchy to write because it was not a pleasant one but it is a story that must be told to help us question how we live with ourselves everyday.

ENTERING ELMINA
Driving into Elmina one can not but notice the coastal line on both sides of the road and on entering the town, the history is evident with some of the old architectural buildings that lined some part of the streets and also the main occupation of the people of the town, Fishing.Elmina castle is a hot tourism spot and is not far from the Elmina fish market which also serves as the major market. It has all the trappings of people trying to sell you something once you are spotted. One cannot dismiss the colourful array of fishing boats that are at the pier nor dismiss the smell of fish that fill your nostrils.

You have to cross a sort of gangway that is above a big gutter to get to the doorway of the castle. Payment of 30GHC is paid at the gate as a foreigner, mind you identification is very important at these places if you are to pay the local price.
I was asked to join a group and a tour guide was assigned to us. About two other tours were ongoing but it was seamlessly done in such a way that teh tours do not affect each other. Our tour guide introduced himself and the tour began.
THE NAME ‘ELMINA’

According to history the first Europeans to arrive at the then Gold Coast were the Portugese and they arrived in the year 1471. They came to buy gold, Ivory, spices and some other artifacts. They brought wine, tobacco, building materials, guns and gun powder. the major commodity they were able to purchase in large quantity from the locals was gold. The rate at which the locals were exchanging this same precious commodity for the cheap foreign goods gave the Portuguese the impression that Gold Coast was a land that has gold in abundance. This resulted in the name ‘A Mina’ or ‘Da Mina’ meaning ‘The Mine’ or ‘Gold Mine’. The locals could not pronounce the name properly thus they corrupted it and called it ‘Elmina’ which is the name it still bears.Before the arrival of the Europeans the town was popularly called ‘Amankwaa Kurom’ meaning ‘ Amankwaa’s village’ named after the founder, Kwaa Amankwaa, as it was customary back then to named the village after the founder.
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