Day 1 in Ghana - Osu Castle
My first day in Accra gave me a morning to get myself sorted out and settle in a little bit to my new accommodation.
The afternoon was a different story.
Having been picked up by my hosts we traveled across Accra to Osu Castle. The castle is the scene of much of the horror that unfolded in Ghana.
It was most recently used as a government building and even hosted Queen Elizabeth II. This does not however do justice to it's dark history.
The castle was originally used by the Portuguese and Danish as a storage area for raw materials and property that was to be exported abroad. However with the onset of the slave trade the goods were replaced with people who were held in the dungeons for up to six months before being shipped off to the Caribbean and Eastern USA.
One of the dungeons where up to 50 men at a time were held for up to six months.
The door of no return marks the place where the enslaved people were forcibly removed to the ships sailing across the Middle Passage.
The photograph of the chapel is of the church that stands above the dungeons where the enslaved were kept.
The day was deeply disturbing and I was grateful for my guides who told me the stories of the castle and it's history.
The Ghanaian people have kept the castle in good order and are determined to develop into a site that people can visit to learn about the difficulties of the past.
If you want to know more about the castle check out its Wiki page here ......
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