Sliver of Light
The darkness crowds the visitors. The small sliver of light slices through the thick rock wall. It blinds the small group of tourists even more.
What must it have been like with 300 other people?
The floors are slippery. In the center and around the edges of the small room there is a small dip in the floor for human waste. There is nowhere to sit, to lie down.
For three months the light through the air hole pierces the surrounding darkness. This dungeon room and the three connecting rooms house 1,000 men. It’s standing room only.
Not too far away, in two more dungeons, 300 women wait in crowded darkness for an unknown future.
Visitors walk the cobblestone pathways and courtyards in awed silence as history surrounds them. Some walk remembering their ancestors, who passed through this castle to a life of slavery. Others come curious at history. They all come in reverence of the memories that haunt this castle.
Unlike the slaves imprisoned in the Cape Coast Castle, visitors are free to roam. They know what awaited those trapped within these walls – a cramped boat ride that too few were lucky to survive, and a lifetime of hard labor.
Captors showed no grace, no mercy. This was business – big business – with lots of money to be made. Every three months almost 1,300 slaves would depart through what is known as “the door of no return.”
The huge black door is still threatening. A heavy wooden beam blocks the large double doors. When the beam is removed the doors open to reveal the Atlantic Ocean.
What must it have been like? To be blinded by the brilliant, hot sun for the first time in months, to have those doors open to reveal a ship headed to an unknown destination.
Now the doors open onto a new scene.
Things have changed since the slave trade. The beach is lined with brightly painted boats. Ghanaian fishermen are preparing their nets for the next day of work. They shout out to each other in Akan, the local language.
Boys help pull the boats onto the beach. Boats are docked right up to the castle’s foundation. Young girls walk the streets around the castle, selling the fresh catch of fish. The fishermen climb the steps leading from the beach to “the door of no return.” For them the castle is a source of income.
The castle is now a part of a thriving town.
Visitors come from all around the world to visit the castle. They eat the fish caught by these fishermen at local restaurants. The castle tour and museum provides jobs for locals. Hotels and hostels provide rooms. Taxis take visitors from one attraction to the next.
Humankind, throughout history, has committed horrible atrocities. Throughout the world there are monuments to remember, to keep us from repeating these kinds of travesties in the future.
The Cape Coast Castle serves as a witness of the harm humans can inflict. Tens of millions of lives lost and changed. Families forever split. Nations ruined. But, it also shows how humankind can overcome the darkest intents.
Because the dungeons are empty.
And because the dark and sad history of the Cape Coast Castle ends at “the door of no return.”
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