The Fantastic Trip to Cape Coast: Part 1

This past weekend the ISEP group went to Cape Coast which is a smaller town a few hours outside of Accra. I say a few hours because depending on traffic it can take from 4-6 hours. The bus ride was nice through, it was very interesting passing the many fruit stands and different scenery that cannot be seen in Accra. When we finally reached Cape Coast we went to the Cape Coast Slave Castle. This had been a castle where many slaves were held before being sold and taken through the middle passage. The amount of history in this place was awe inspiring. Never before had I seen the environment that slaves of the 17th and 18th centuries had to endure. The cells where the slaves were held cannot be properly shown in books or movies. The deplorable conditions that were forced upon the slaves that were once housed in the very spot where we stood was astonishing. The view from the castle was truly beautiful with the waves from the Atlantic crashing against the dark mahogany colored rocks. This was made all the more conflicting because of the atrocities that had been told of during the tour. Overall, the Cape Coast Slave Castle has done a fantastic job preserving the very old structure. The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and was ready to answer any of our questions. This is a place that any individual traveling to Ghana must go. Even for individuals who are not interested in history, it still creates an atmosphere of desire to know what occurred on the grounds only a few centuries ago.