Looking back, Ghana as a country has come so far. Growing up, we learnt of how much our forefathers sacrificed for us to be able to enjoy the freedom we have today in our motherland Ghana. Today, I want to share with you a little history of Ghana and how far we have come.
It would interest you to know that Ghana was first known by the name Gold Coast. And as the name suggests, Ghana is a land of gold. Ghana is known to be Africa’s largest producer of Gold and so this should tell you something. In the days of our forefathers, gold was a sign of societal status. When you take a look at the Ashanti Kingdom, the King of the Kingdoms stool is made of gold which represents royalty.
Along the line, our gold was being used for trade during the early days of the arrival of the Europeans to Ghana. The local people would give out their gold in exchange for good likes clothings, spices and the likes. The Portuguese traders were the first Europeans to arrive in Ghana during the slave trade in 1471 led by John Diego De Azambuja. At that time, Ghana has so much gold and there was also a high demand for cheap labor in the western world.
Upon the arrival of the Portuguese, they build the Elmira castle in cape coast in 1482 which then became the major slave trade point. During those times slaves were brought to the castle in exchange for guns, gun powder, beads and what have you. These slaves included both men and women. The slaves were kept in dungeons in the castle until they were set to be sent to the western world by sea. Also, the women were also sometimes brought out of their dungeons to serve as wives to the European leaders and some even bore children for them along the line. Other women we also sent out with the men to the western world.
Now, let’s talk about the situation to the dungeons. From my numerous visits to the Elmina castle, I can tell you that those dungeons were no place to keep humans. To make things worse, there was no proper ventilation in those rooms and also no washrooms . To add to that , slaves were packed in the dungeons like sardine with no breathing space. You’d have to live in there with a dozen others, sleeping and also attending to natures call in the same place.
Due to the nature of how these slaves were being treated, some ended up losing their lives down there and those that survived we sent out to the western world through the gate of no return to serve as slaves to their new masters. It wasn’t until 1807 that the British abolished slave trade in Ghana but there were still some illegal trades until slave trade came to a stop around 1870.
This is a little history of how slave trade started in Ghana and how it was abolished. I hope you enjoyed reading.
all images belong to me.
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