Weekend Visits: Cape Coast & Elmina

Cape Coast held its annual Fetu Afahye festival this weekend, attracting more Obronis than a Western-style fair trade coffee shop that serves fresh salad and whole wheat bread (I don’t care if I’m the only one who gets this joke). My Obroni self was fortunate enough to get a lift to Cape Coast with a very kind pair of Aussies and their Ghanaian coworker. I had met them once before at a dinner table full of expats at a Chinese Restaurant (the one time I got sick from food thus far in Ghana). 

The trip took about 3.5 hours and I couldn’t help but feel great nostalgia for the essential Canadian road trip item - a Tim Horton’s Coffee. My trip in the car just felt so empty without a large paper cup full of Timmy’s.

“It’s not even good quality coffee. It’s like, gas station coffee.” I explained to the car. “But it’s just so... good. So.. Tim Hortons. It’s hard to explain.” 

In my homesick state, I settled for the plantain chips and hardboiled eggs I snagged off people’s heads for a few peswas while at a stoplight.

Minka's Coffee Center

It was too late though. The damage was done. We were all craving coffee and there was most certainly no special touristy place along the road that would satisfy our craving. 

However, our caffeinated prayers were answered upon arriving in Cape Coast. Hidden amidst the streets full of festival-ready locals and crammed with taxis, hidden within the crooked shacks that lined the streets was a blue wooden sign with the title “Minka’s Coffee Center.” Accompanying the name of the restaurant were painted illustrations of coffee mugs and the logos for Milo and Nescafe. An adorable find in a charming bustling village.

I was fortunate to have a few hours to explore the city before the festivities swung into action. I took to the opportunity to explore one of Ghana’s most historic sites - the old slave castle in Cape Coast. This large village was once the heart of the trans-atlantic slave trade. My Bradt Guide states that: “This World Heritage Site is reputed to have been one of the largest slave-holding sites in the world during the colonial era, Where Ghanaians - many of them traded to the British by Ashantes in return for alcohol and guns - were stored before being cramped into returning merchant ships and deported to a life of captive labour.”

Read more about the history of Cape Coast HERE.

Cape Coast Castle

Cape Coast Castle

Given the festival, the castle was quite lively with people - Ghanaian and foreign tourists alike. The busyness of the place disrupted the eery feeling that I thought I would experience walking through old captive cells and slim corridors. However, the small museum served to provide me with a lot of historical information as well as some bone-chilling artifacts.

View of Cape Coast through wall of Castle 

Tool used to brand slaves (located in Cape Coast Castle Museum)

Sign advertising an upcoming slave auction

In my pre-departure training for Ghana, I was introduced to a Ghanaian man who was to inform us about life in Ghana and answer our questions. Once we broached the topic of tourism, he mentioned both the castle at Cape Coast and the St. George’s Castle at Elmina (a small and beautiful fishing-village near Cape Coast). He made no mention of the history of these placed but simply asked: “Please, do not cry when you get to these castles. All the foreigners cry.”

Fishing town of Elmina. Despite its sad history in the slave trade, this town is extremely charming and wonderful. 

Well, my visit to Elmina's St. George’s Castle came close to breaking my no-tears promise with the Ghanaian expat. For some reason, perhaps because I was touring the castle alone this time or perhaps because the celebratory festival buzz that surrounded the fortress walls of Cape Coast's Castle was no longer present, I found this particular visit more haunting. The increase in the number of cells and dungeons than that of Cape Coast was particularly disturbing. I walked into the mouldy caves, some with not even a peep hole for light, and tried to swallow the reality that humans were kept locked in here for days, months even. The rank smell in these cramped holes was like a mixture of mould, urine and bird droppings.  

Entrance to a dungeon at St. George's Castle

The architectural layout of St. George prohibits you from forgetting the actual function the building served at one point in time. Whereas the Cape Coast Castle felt a little bit more like a fortress used for battle, St. George’s calculated layout is hauntingly blunt. 

View from inside a captive cell in St. George's Castle

From what I understand, St. George’s differs from Cape Coast in that it was the home to actual slave auctions rather than serving only as a pre-departure holding cell for slaves. However, like Cape Coast, the castle served as one of the biggest (if not the biggest) trans-atlantic slave trading hub. 

Read more about the history of St. George’s Castle HERE.

Sandwiched between these two visits to an ugly part of Ghana’s history, was a much happier occasion: The Fetu Afahye Festival. The festival climaxed with a huge parade where Ghanaians, decked in all kinds of costumes and traditional wear, danced through the streets. Seven chiefs were carried atop the crowd on lush bejeweled beds. 

HERE is a much better telling of the Fetu Afahye Festival and its history.

Costumed performers marching along the streets

At the Festival, this woman asked if I could snap a picture of her after a group of kids were hogging the limelight.

People walking in the parade

A chief is carried along the parade in a bed.

Groups of women in the parade dance along the street at the arrival of the chief.

I hope you are enjoying the blog thus far. Unfortunately I will not be updating the blog for the rest of the week as I will be travelling to the town of Sefwi Wiawso for the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashannah). Thanks to my mother's internet searching skills, I have discovered the existence of a Ghanaian Jewish community! These are not expats but actual West African Jews! I have no idea what to expect but I will be staying in the community for a few days and will be sure to report back with more stories!