Kumasi is a very bustling place with lots of people everywhere you look. We drove past Kejetia Market, the largest market in West Africa. There are tiny stalls as far as the eye can see, and I read that you can easily get lost in the maze. I think I will have the chance to visit it during an excursion with my class in a few weeks.
This morning we spent time learning about the Ashanti people of central Ghana and the Asante kingdom’s history and governance at the Manhyia Palace and Museum and the National Cultural Center. Although Ghana is a parliamentary democracy with a president, regional ministers,etc, there are numerous kingdoms in the country with kings and lower level chiefs who lead the specific clans and villages. The Ashanti people consider themselves peaceful warriors and liken themselves to porcupines when it comes to defense. They were the primary gold miners of the country—Ghana used to be called the Gold Coast– and adorn their kings with lots of gold jewelry. It was very interesting to hear how the kings related to the British colonists and how their relationships formed. At one point, a king in the 1920s refused to give the British Governor (leader) of Ghana his golden stool, literally a golden stool that symbolizes the power of the kingdom, so he was exiled to the Seychelles for 21 years. The Ashanti people were also merchants or middle men during the slave trade. They would buy or help Europeans buy slaves from the northern villages and take them further south for their transfer to the British, Portuguese, Dutch and others who colonized Ghana.
Along the way to Cape Coast there were several examples of typical southern Ghanaian cemeteries with ornate, casket-length stone tombs and big tombstones often with a photo of the deceased on it. Ghanaians often save for years to produce the elaborate funerals with events for one person held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is a striking picture to see a cemetery with all the ornate gravesites just beyond a village with thatched roofs and roaming livestock. Ernest explained that there is a push to limit the size and cost of such events so that the money is spent on the person while he or she is alive. It seems like a logical thing to me!
Before arriving in Cape Coast, we stopped at Assin Manso, a village where the remains of 2 former slaves, one from the US and one from Jamaica, were re-interred in 1998 during Ghana’s first Emancipation Day ceremony. There are monuments for the graves as well as a wall where people can purchase space to write their names as symbol of returning to their homeland. Assin Manso was a stopping point along the slave route as people were walked for months from Mali, Burkina Faso and northern Ghana to this point. What really caught me was walking the original path made by the slaves as they were chained and taken to the nearby river for their “last bath” and physical before being walked to the coast to be jailed in the Cape Coast and Elmina Castle dungeons and then shipped to the “New World.” The physical was actually a look at their teeth to determine age and a review of their strength to determine what price to ask for each person.
At the river’s edge is a carved path to the water where chained slaves were dragged into the water by their captors. It was an emotional experience being there with the water running and the trees blowing, knowing all were sounds the people would have heard 400 years ago. I kept shaking my head. What humanity can do to humanity is dumbfounding.
As we arrived in Elmina where our hotel is, we drove past Elmina Castle, the first structure built by the first European invaders, the Portuguese, in 1471. Although I’ve seen photos, it is an amazing and stark site in person as you see its enormous structure in all white perched just at the edge of the coast overlooking the Atlantic. We will be touring it and Cape Coast Castle tomorrow—I look forward to it with anticipation and dread.
We ended the night with a nice dinner at the Coconut Grove Beach Resort restaurant outside overlooking the water. Unfortunately, Rob’s stomach was still unsettled so he had a sandwich, but I greatly enjoyed my grilled lobster with garlic butter and vegetables. Hopefully tomorrow he will feel well enough we can share a bottle of wine or a pina colada, It’s not right for me to drink alone and I will probably need it after the intensity of the castles.
