Elmina Bay and Cape Coast

Elmina

This week we travelled to Cape Coast. This is west of Accra about a 4 hour drive. We stayed outside of a fishing village called Elmina. The hotel was very nice--right on the beach.

Sister Fife at Elmina Bay

We met up with President and Sister Froerer (MTC mission president) and toured the Cape Coast Castle.

It is a very sobering place—it is a slave castle. This is where the slaves were gathered and kept until they boarded the ships bound for the West Indies and the United States. Countless people died here. Out of 500 slaves that were captured inland, only half survived the trip to the Cape Coast Castle. Out of those 250, only about half survived the dungeons of the castle. Of those surviving 125, only about half survived the slave ships to arrive in the United States.

Elder and Sister Fife at the Cape Coast Slave Castle

The castle's outside wall

 

We followed these kids around all day--we had fun visiting with them

In our history books, we read of the tortured lives of only the remaining 60 or 70 that actually survived this whole ordeal. Millions of Africans from Ghana alone died or were brought into slavery. I can find no other words to describe it but—sobering.

This is called the Door of No Return--once a slave stepped through the door, he never returned to Africa

View from the governors quarters

Elmina bay and Cape Coast currently are major fishing villages. This is an awe-inspiring sight. The boats in the harbor burst with color.

To walk the streets of Elmina is to experience living chaos. The streets are lined with huts and shacks full of lots and lots of glorious people. On your right you’d  see a woman scrubbing a naked baby whose wailing at the top of her lungs. On the left a man urinating into the street and a man cart heaped with supplies being pulled down the street by two very strong young men. (A man cart is really a wagon built for a man. It’s made with car tires and are seen everywhere in Ghana. They are on every corner and usually have the owner sleeping in it—I assume waiting for someone who needs his services.) Everywhere there are shacks proudly displaying goods for sale—sacks of flour or rice, dried fish, breads, bakes, plantains, corn, snails, and clothing. There are people hustling for business, there are people sleeping, people playing, people bathing, people eating, people eying you with suspicion, people, people, people.

We saw an obruni in the village and it seemed really weird. An obruni is a white man—and they really look out of place. Who knew…right?

We had a wonderful experience today while we were waiting for President and Sister Shulz (mission president in the Cape Coast Mission). We finished our inspection of the University of Cape Coast University Hospital and parked our car at a local chapel—which is right across the street from the shore. We went for a walk hoping to kill the half hour of time. We saw another incredible site. A picture just doesn’t do it justice, so I’ll try and describe the sights and sounds.

The fishing boats leave early in the morning loaded with yard after yard of fishing nets. They leave one end tied to a tree and tow the other end far out into the ocean. I estimate the nets to be out in the ocean close to ¾ of a mile.

Fishing boats loaded with nets

Then the end is tied to long ropes and brought back around  to the shore where the young men will spend most of the morning and afternoon pulling on the rope to bring the nets back in. The men sing in a cadence all morning as the pull in the nets.  It’s sung in Twi and it is rather quite beautiful. We took the opportunity to join them, and I helped pull on the net for about 30 minutes and I was WIPED. These guys pull all day long. It will take them six or eight hours to finally get the nets in. It was a great experience. 

Pulling in the nets--an all day labor