Today I went to Cape Coast Castle which is one of the main castles where Africans brought other Africans to sell to Europeans to take to America and Europe. It was an intense experience.
This is the male slave dungeon. There were 5 rooms that held 200 men each - a total of 1000 men lived there. They ate, slept, and use the restroom right in the room they were in until they were sent off to America. The only light was the small windows at the top of some of the rooms.
The female dungeon was smaller because the British (and perhaps some of the Africans with power, I'm not sure) raped the women to keep them pregnant so they could have more children born into slavery. The pregnant women lived in the top of the castle and were given food and water and a bit more comfortable place to live until either they gave birth or were sent off in the slave ships while still pregnant.
We also saw where the British governor and other white people lived as well as where they had church, right above the male dungeon. Those are the beautiful views and airy room. There was even an opening installed in the ground where they could look down and see the Africans in the dungeon after they came out of church - the church is now a Children's Library, labeled below.
I can't say everything here about the castle that I'd like. Suffice it to say that we can't imagine how human beings were treated by other human beings. I wish everyone could come see this and try to understand from a different perspective what slavery actually was like, and that these were human beings.
Other goings on of the day included another trip to Melcom, which is kind of like Wal-Mart here. I'm still figuring out what I need for my place, so I'm sure I'll be visiting there kind of a lot. That area of town is still OVERWHELMING to me. The traffic! The people! The humanity! The heat! It's going to take some time to get used to that scene.
John yet again, was very gracious in taking me to the Castle and to Melcom. We had a good time and he also introduced me to red red. I learned that he has a wife and 2 kids - 2 and 6. I will get to meet them soon, as they are not living in Cape Coast at the moment, but will be moving back in a couple of weeks.
John also talked me through how to use the taxi system here. Basically, the taxis work kind of like buses, on a grid system of sorts. You have to get in a certain taxi that goes to the certain place you are going. You cannot just get into any taxi and ask to go to wherever. And you have to wait for the taxi to fill with other passengers before it takes off- otherwise you will have to pay the fare of empty seats if you are in a hurry. Again, a steep learning curve that I will learn over time, but not today! This is a picture of the taxi area by campus - very convenient to the music building and this part of campus.
In the evening, we went to dinner at a restaurant that sort of served American food at a very fancy hotel. It was ok. I put a pic of my half-eaten dinner here. They give big portions! And I also learned that cheese is not a thing that they do here. My dinner was basically vegetables and cheese - not quite what I expected it to look like, but it was fine. Then we went to this awesome bar by the beach. We were going to watch a live band that John had told me about, but due to a two-week ban on noise-making (it's part of the traditional religions here), there was no live band. So instead they were blasting music out of huge speakers (I guess that doesn't count as noise-making? John was not quite sure what to say about that either). So the vibe was still really nice and chill. I can't wait to go back when there is a live band an lots of people.
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