Today we visited “Elmina Castle”, which was one of the most important epicenters of slave trade in West Africa. According to our tour guide, around 12 million black Africans passed through the castle, but only 4 million came out of it alive. Those surviving 4 million were sent on ships to other countries to work as slaves. They never returned to Africa.
Today the castle stands as one of the most visited tourist centers in the region. The castle in itself is beautiful-- white walls built against a sea of rich blue and blue skies. Waves crashing against the rocks are a soundtrack to the governor´s room. You wouldn´t think people were brutalized and tortured at such premises. But then, as you descend into the dungeons, which served as rooms for the slaves, the putrid stench begins to reveal the real story of Elmina Castle. Dark rooms with no ventilation held captive hundreds of black Africans. Steel balls and chains were used to punish women who refused to be raped. And then, there´s the Door of No Return, where slaves finally stepped into the outside world, where they were forces into ships that would deprive them of their homeland for ever.
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