 This is the city of history, and I've given you a bit of it, so I would like to give you out, say, my Missouri movie. And this guy is going to... Charlie, okay. My name is Maya, I'm from Amina in San Juan. In Africa, we have to put... It's from me, Kobena Akon. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. You're welcome. Okay, so we have a lot of people out there who really want to know the history about Elmina Castle. And he's telling me that I got a little mix, so... So what do you like about that? Yeah, we are in Elmina Castle. Yeah, the Portuguese first arrived in 1471. When they came, they met the then king called Nanna Kwamana Ansa. Based upon agreements, he released this portion of land for them to put up a temporary structure. Actually, the main idea was that they wanted a place to settle and do their business in terms of gold, ivory, spice, and so on. All the rooms on the ground floor were store rooms. Later, the Portuguese changed the idea from good to human trade. Therefore, the store rooms were being converted to dungeons where captives were kept, waiting for shipmates. This castle is talking about 1,000 captives at a time. About 600 men and 400 women in every three months. At times, the number could be more. On the 29th of August 1637, the Dutch fought the Portuguese with the support from the locals. They took over the castle. Among the Europeans, the Dutch spent longer time over here, 285 years. In 1872, the castle was no more important to the Dutch. They were living. Therefore, the Dutch swapped. They went for land in Sumatra, Indonesia, and the English-occupied over here. In this castle, only the Portuguese in the Dutch, they were here for the slavery activities. For the British, they escaped this castle. In 1948, this place was used as a police training school. That's why the metal bars were placed. So the policemen were going with the iron bars up in their foot training exercise. Later, they transferred them to Windy Bay, now called Windy Bay. As of now, this very building is 537 years. This is the biggest and oldest castle in all of West Africa. That doesn't mean that Elmina is the original name of this town. No. The frequent supply of gold the Portuguese were getting from here. They call this place the mines. At times, you hear Edina Edina as a local name. It's not also the name of this town. The right word is al-diya. In Arabic, it means harbour or port. Al-diya, village. But the locals call it Edina Edina Edina. The original name of this place is Ano Mansa. Ano Mansa. Which means in exhaustable water. Ano Mansa. Wow. Orkaman Khakrum. He was the founder of this town. And as you can see, there are two rooms over there. With the exception of those two rooms, about 600 men were sprayed down. They were kept in various rooms on the ground floor. The one with the skull, the crossbones. That's a condemned cell. Condemned cell. Yeah. The difficult male captives, those who tried to escape, like the freedom fighters. They were kept in. They were starved to death. No food, no water, till they died. None of them went in and came back alive. That's where we have the samo here. It's already as if by the Dutch. These are just peep holes. They will look through to see whether those inside, they are dead or not. And when you are dead? They will just throw the dead body. They will tie them to stones. They will throw them to the sea. Put them to sand and go down. Yeah. The other one with the metal gates was for the... Sogias' home is behaved at one point. Soldiers, I mean their own soldiers. Their own soldiers. What's happened was that at one point, one of the Dutch governess, Governor Hodginbrook, was murdered in the town by the locales. So the soldiers were mistreated about their movements. Those who went out without permission beyond their territory were detained in this room. At least they were fighting among themselves. They were kept away to be disciplined. Few hours they were released. But even look at the holes in it. They seem well ventilated. Well ventilated. Yeah. A slave to them was like a commodity and assets to them. They were missing a few months. Yeah. And you know, wanting about African history, we have so many misconceptions about African history. Yeah. We will tell our own story. There is this proverb. They say, until the lion has his historian, the hunter will always be hero. If we, the Africans, going to tell our own story from outside, there will be a time that the stone will be twisted to tell us. This is why I've brought what we call Africa to the world. For Africans to tell their own story. And I'm glad that you are actually telling this real story. What really happened in here? I would not want to take that around because I've seen the male dungeon. Is there any female dungeon too? Yes. We are moving to female dungeon. Then we go to the point of no return. Where our ancestors were taken to different places. Very terrible. And sometimes people don't ask this question that because the Europeans were doing business. If they are motive, was to gain much profit, then they should take good care of them. Rather than allowing them to die and so on. Is it wickedness? From my point of view, the supply of the captive were more. It wasn't in scarcity. They never mind because if they died, they will still get some. And before the Europeans came, the Africans would have their own system of slavery. That was domestic type of slavery. Or commoner was an indentured servant, like a free man. A person who had the opportunity to own property, marry and give birth. Or like the chattels, slaves by the Europeans, with different assets all together. So captive thieves of wars were given out as slaves. Criminals, thieves, deputies were sold out as slaves. Some towns and villages were raided by the Europeans. Some thieves could not collaborate to exchange on the same amount. But my question is, let us ask ourselves frankly, has it really stopped us at now? You think slavery is still going on? It's still going on in a different dimension. For me, I think the slavery that is going on is like a worker, someone works the entire day and he gave him a hundred dollars a month. That's slavery too. What's nice slavery? So where are we now? Now we are in the female section. You know, the coastline of West Africa were termed as a white man's grave. So the Europeans never came along with their families. Only men were here. Some of the officers were sexually abusing the woman in this castle. The governor was standing at the top. That was a bar queen. He would then order the soldiers to open the doors for the woman to be assembled here. He would look through that would make his choice. We have this metal ball, a cannon ball. Initially, we used to have many of these. They were changed through them. The women who were difficult, those who were resistant to be raped by the soldiers, they changed within the cannon balls. We tied around their legs. No food, no water. Whether we're raining or shining, they'll be here. So the time, they'll give up. They did that just to put fear in them, to break down their spirits. When the ships had arrived, some women were likely seen to be pregnant. They were separated. Houses were built in the town for the pregnant ones. They were seated to give birth. Later, the children were brought back to the castle to be educated as new officers. Their mothers remain here as cooks to the castle. Domestic workers to the castle. In 1637, some of the Dutch officers moved to the town. They customary married the women over there and they had children with them. That's why along the coastal zones, we have so many Europeans' names over here. Vandaik, Van der Pooy, Vroom, Dheer, Duncan, Frespa and the Lai Scala Skin, or the Mace Blood Africans. They are very common over here. Don't forget, it's brought about disunity among the Africans and the Africans themselves. People were looking down when they felt Africans divide, conquer and rule. There was a program held in this room. Last four years, people volunteered to sleep in this room for one night. They had to experience how our ancestors went through rape and harassment of the sleeping. They volunteered online, some from U.S., U.K., Nigeria, they were all blacks. And because the captives were half-naked, those who slept here for the program used distance to cover themselves, to demonstrate with the chains around their house. But I don't think even those chains that they used to tie them looks like this. No, no, big ones. These are just small, small. Yeah. So sad. I think... Over here too, about 130 women were kept here. Out of the number of captives that came here, only one third of them survived in this castle. Three out of ten survived over here. Children were not counted as a person. They were just added to an adult ensued as one person. The concentration was not on the children, rather with the adult. But mistakenly, some of the people were captured while some of the babies are near back. In this castle, we are talking of 1,000 captives in every three months. In one year, we have about 4,000 captives. And the slave trade lasted for almost 400 years. Those who died in their various forests were not counted. So, a lot. In Ghana alone, the Europeans built about 40 forts and castles along the coastal zones, from Kite to Azim. There is a similar one in Senegal. I was there. Yeah, Zanzibar in Tanzania. We don't fault in Benin. I've never been there. To in Nigeria. But I've never seen it. For Jesus in Kenya. Not a lot. Been to the Fort Jesus in Kenya too. Looking at the thickness of the wall, the size of the wall, there's so we can escape. None of the captives escaped over here. None of them. So all these places, dungeon, I've seen around that. Yes. We are moving through some of the dungeons. Especially the largest dungeon for the female captives. There is a strong stench in that room. Yeah. We could have used scary cars to clean up this. But don't forget this history. We have to maintain the originality of this place. That's why we have the stench here. About 150 women were kept here. For one month, two months, or three months. They are still in their various rooms. Depends on the arrival of the ships. How often the ships will come. Buckets were placed at various corners. Where they were expected for them to ease themselves in those buckets. Not all the captives were from Ghana. The mood of transportation after that time was by force. Those who meditated were very weak. During their second month of staying in their various rooms, some of them could not walk from the model of the dungeon to where the buckets were placed. Therefore, they did everything on the floor. Feces, urine, vomiting, blood, they slept in it. There were no mats for them. That's the original floor they slept on. All the big entrances were closed with metal gates. The air from the small doors was not enough for those at the back. That was a source of ventilation to them. It was even connected to a magazine. They were keeping their guns, gunpowder, chemical guns in that room. If there is a leakage over the incident at the scene, we just must treat it, put it in the air and kill them. The dead ones, as I said, were tied to stones in the floating to the sea. All the flowers at the back by our brothers and sisters from the diaspora in the memory of those who died over here. We are now moving to the point of no return. It's very terrible. I don't think I'm going to do these videos anymore because the more I do these kind of videos, the more I get more emotional. Yes, it's very emotional. You know, history defines who you are. Exactly. If you don't know your identity. Exactly. Yeah. You're right. In order to keep the history for the next generation, you'll be able to compile all the facts, information, the book from our younger ones. We're going to know the history. Exactly. Because some of the history books that we read are from the side of the Europeans. The Europeans, yeah. We need to write to them. Sorry, I have a long story. Yes. When the ships had arrived, the strong women, those who survived through all that brutality, they made to pass here to the point of no return. Pass here. Yes. There were steps over there. The room is very dark. That's the nature of the room. It's very dark. So while the male captives were seeing the main entrance, the women also passed through the side. You can just imagine some of the main kidnapped captains from the hinterlands for the first time were seeing the ocean. The reaction that the person put on, yeah, they were just struggling with them. Many of them died out of that. So we are moving through the male dungeon then to the point of no return. For the building aspect, it's in its original state. That's the original state. All the architectural design that we are seeing is much of the touch. That's the male slave dungeon. We just came from the female side. We are now moving through the male dungeon. In this particular room, about 150, 200 men were kept to pass here. At the same time, a transit passage to the point of no return The room at the back was just a storeroom for the branded equipment. Most of the captives were branded hot metal. So the major names initials were placed here on their forehead or at their back for identification. Many of them died on the installation. Yeah. Hot metal. Like tattoo. Slave exits to waiting boats. One thing that people don't want as is, you know, the initial idea of putting up this structure was for good. I've explained it to you. Too good. That was what they informed the chief. Yeah. Quickly, they changed the human brain. So who knows that the initial idea would be the camouflage. Exactly. They lie. And they start lying. Yet we are still entertaining them. And due to the emotional aspect of the tour, at times, we don't blend the tour with the white to avoid any embarrassment, any confusion. You do have it. Yeah. Good. Sometimes it's very emotional. It's very true. Our brothers will be asked from. So we are now moving to the point of no return. Yeah. It's very dark here. We are now in the room of no return. This is a gate of no return. In this room, we normally have just one mini silence over here for those who die lost their lives. Yeah. May the souls for departed ones rest in peace. We believe that they are spirit around. So the bottles of wine, the schnapps and so on. Sometimes the chiefs and the elders over here, they know what comes but also rich walls, prayers and so forth. The departed ones, all these flowers at the back by our brothers and sisters from Diaspora. Yes, remember those who died late. People don't want crazy ancestral with to this place. In this room, many of the captives, they blow down in tears over here. Wet, bitter, go see their parents and other relatives without finalization. Through these gates, some of them were sent to America's West Indies, some part of Europe, for them to work in the adverse mines, plantation and quarantine farms. The gates was very wide at the time of God, ivory, spices, and so on to speak. Later when they changed the idea to human trade, they narrowed the gates to restrict movement. And about five or 10 people were chained to each other. They were moving on the side with players. They see what was closer. By then, now it has receded. The ships will be at the show before they will bring smaller boats to convey the captives into. Looking at the small size of the gate, by the time they will be here for one, two, or three months, they will just lose weight. They can easily pass through. Even though they were fed, some of the smalls will see them. Yeah. This, this is sad. Like this is the gate of no return. Like this. I did this in Gore Island. So we go. Because they said that this is the gate of no return. That is why His Excellency Akufoado decided to make you see her as the year of return. After return, even though I'm not in the diaspora, but I just entered and just returned. It's about time. You also accept the fact that your ancestors were from me. I'm not telling you that all of you are from Ghana, but try as much as possible to know your roots. Check the DNA and subscribe DNA. Get to know which part of Africa are you from. And whatever you have, when you check and you know that you're from Ghana, make sure you return to this place and let them know that they said is the way of no return. But when you return, your ancestors will be happy that finally your great-great-grandson or their great-great-granddaughter finally return to them. So what is the Ghana baby? And I think I'm not going to do more of this episode because anytime I do this episode, I get excited emotional and then I get back home and I have to struggle to get my book back again. And I'm going to see you in the next one. And thank you so much for taking us around. Really appreciate it. Nice. We return. Thank you. Now it's a loop off. Return. So we have to return. Yes.