For many of the tourists, the connection begins as they look and listen to the waves. On the coast of Ghana, the crushing waves tell a tale of pain and discovery unlike any other. It is the same view that millions of captured Africans had as their feet touched their homeland for the last time. More than half of the slaves would die on the ship, their bodies thrown back into the water which linked them to home.
Years passed, even centuries, but the waves kept count for the sea and called the slave children back home to Africa. An African America first time visitor describes her experience "This is not something manmade or created or manufactured. This is all natural, and it's spiritual. It's something that doesn't materialize, so you have to feel it."
"Coming home now, I can feel more connected to Africa and I can say, "Yes, this is my home." "All African Americans need that experience; they need that experience of history. A lot of Blacks are not connected with their history, their past, their culture." Another tourist says, "I feel like I'm in contact with part of my past and my people that I've missed for 500 years, it's been a great experience. Being in Africa and seeing the people here has rejuvenated me and helped to define some of my past. Although I'm an American and I was born in America, my ancestors are from Africa and a lot of my past and my history is lost."
The forts weren't originally built to house slaves waiting to be shipped, El Mina was built by the Portuguese in 1482. The name El Mina literally means "the mine" and refers to the gold trade that flourished on this coast. It is also for geographical reasons that all the European commercial activity took place on the cape coast; first because in what is today called Ghana, there was an abundance of gold, and secondly because the rocky terrain was ideal for the building of fortresses and castles. Cape Coast Castle was built as a warehouse for goods and a fort for military troops until slavery emerged as big business. Then it became a holding area for captured men and women.
A tourist guide talks about the treatment that captured slaves received just before being loaded about the vessel that would take them to Europe and America. "They put them down in the dungeons for about 6 to 8 weeks, separating the very strong from the weak. The weak ones were put into a little place called "The Cell," where they are starved to death because they were of no use since they were not strong enough to make the passage across the Atlantic.
Down in the dungeons, the walls are still coated with the sweat and excrement of thousands of captured Africans. You can also see some of the cannonballs used to chain men and women who were bold enough to try to run away. But probably the most sobering sight in El Mina Castle is the so-called "Point of no return." This gate marked the actual spot where slaves were threatened, beaten and prodded to pass through to the slave ship. The salt water sting in their faces couldn't erase the tears as they were jammed aboard the ship. Even as the new world loomed ahead, most would never see it. Disease, crowded conditions and broken hearts would lead many to a watery grave.
Hundreds of years later, descendants of the slaves are returning. A family, for example, has brought four generations to pay tribute to unknown relatives who survived the "Point of no return." Says the mother, "It is a moment of vindication of the ancestors, we have come to the "gate of no return" and we have returned." How did it feel for her, standing in the spot and realizing that it was the same point where the slaves stood for the very last time? She says, "I stood there with them and in their name claimed that we will not forget and we will not let history forget. The important thing is that this trip helped me to pass the story of the struggle and the torch of the struggle to the younger generation."
Another tourists says "it was a feeling of sadness, you really wanted to cry because you could see the injustices that were done to our forefathers." "For me to be able to make this trip over here and to finally see it for myself, is really beyond words, I can't really express it. To see the actual corridors, the actual cells where the slaves were held in, to see the "gate of no return," and for us to be able to walk back through that gate of no return ourselves, is liberating, but at the same time it's painful. To witness it and see how they must have felt, you get so much of a spiritual feeling being here because you can't help but feel, your ancestors, their struggles and the whole heritage. I am so grateful to the people of Ghana for preserving this because there have been so many attempts to obliterate this truth, to not tell the story of this holocaust."
