Echoes Of The Cries Of Slaves At Cape Coast Castle

Male and female slaves dungeons of the Cape Coast Castle

The mere mention of slavery brings bad memories, as it harbored unimaginable evil act, as thousands of Africans were captured under inhuman circumstances into overcrowded dungeons and transported across the Atlantic to the New World.

 

Even though slavery is long abolished, the African still bears the psychological scars, as he fights to regain his lost identity and respect among mankind on the surface of the earth today.

 

The slave trade in Ghana mainly took place in coastal towns, but I wish to write about Cape Coast, my country of birth, which was the center of the British slave trade for almost 150 years. Cape Coast is located in the central region of Ghana.

 

Image of the Cape Coast Castle, where thousands of African slaves were shipped to the United States of America

It was the capital of Gold Coast between 1700 until 1877 when the capital was shifted to Accra. Ghana replaced the Gold Coast when the country achieved its independence in 1957.

 

Echoes of sad music in the air can be heard from Cape Coast, attracting thousands of tourists including African-Americans and other Africans in the Diaspora to visit the place, where their ancestors were packed like a sardine into ships for slavery. 

 

There is a proverb in Ghana which says “a man doesn't cry.” I’m beginning to question this proverb if it has any elements of truth because any African in the Diaspora who visits Cape Coast castle can’t hold back his or her tears.

 

The psychological effect and emotions over Cape Coast Castle, which still has the remnants of the slave trade, are unbearable. President Obama, wife, Michelle, and children can’t forget the experience of touring the preserved sites. Also, the wife of Donald Trump, Melanie, visited Cape Coast.

 

One can’t escape the cold waves which go through the spine. Even though many Africans in the Diaspora haven’t been to Ghana to trace their roots or visit Cape Coast, others had. 

The Pan African Historical Festival, simply called PANAFEST is a cultural event which has brought thousands of African-Americans to visit Cape Coast.

 

Visiting Cape Coast Castle to understand the pain and the suffering endured by the millions of slaves is an important step for African-Americans and other Africans in the Diaspora to be closer to Africa. 

It is sad to note that many hate to be referred to as Africans, even though history about their origin isn’t a fabricated story.

 

It seems that’s the way to help forget this bitter experience, but there is nothing satisfying than visiting the continent of your origin to discover the reality aspects of a sad journey.

 

Forts and castles built by Europeans between 1482 and 1786, serving as slave depots are still visible in Ghana. Apart from the Cape Coast Castle, are also Elmina and Christiansburg Castles.  

How African slaves were crammed into a ship and taken away to America

Ghana invites you. Be part of other tourists to visit Cape Coast, to see the male dungeon, female dungeon, remnants and the reality of cruelty of slavery, committed by White Slave Masters.

THE DEEP BETRAYAL OF NKRUMAH BY GHANA AND THE AMERICAN CIA

Kwame Nkrumah, one of the intelligent African leaders the world has ever known

In October 1965, Kwame Nkrumah, the president of Ghana, published his future book, ‘Neocolonialism: The last stage of imperialism.’ The book was dedicated to "The living and the dead African freedom fighters."

In the book, Nkrumah accused the CIA of numerous crises and regressions in the Third World and Eastern Europe. Later, Nkrumah wrote: "The American government sent me a note of protest and soon refused to give Ghana $35 million planned to help the country.

Four months later, he was deposed in a military coup organized by the CIA. Of course, the organizers of the coup, members of the Ghanaian army and police, had their own motives. They feared that Nkrumah was creating his own private army that would take their powers away, and they were determined to promote their own professional careers and status.

Within a very short period after the successful coup in February 1966, the majors became colonels, and the colonels became generals. As a student in the United States during the Great Depression, Kwame Nkrumah wandered around Harlem, slept in the subway, and stood in lines in the mess rooms for the needy.

Later, he became "the brightest star of Africa," a leader calling for a struggle against imperialism, the creation of a pan-African organization, and an international non-aligned movement during the Cold War. According to the general opinion, Nkrumah adhered to special rules that belonged to him and believed that socialism could be adopted by decrees from above.

Although he boldly spoke out against neocolonialism, he still failed to ultimately prevent the influence of transnational corporations in Ghana. When he tried to reduce his country's dependence on the West, strengthening economic and military ties with the Soviet Union, China, and East Germany, he finally decided his fate.

The United States wanted to get rid of him. Great Britain, the former colonial masters of Ghana then called the Gold Coast (Gold Coast), also wanted to remove Nkrumah. France and West Germany also didn’t like Nkrumah. Those Ghanaians who accomplished the coup did not doubt that the movement against Nkrumah would be supported by the Western powers.

During the coup, the Soviet press accused the CIA of participation in 1972. The conservative London Daily Telegraph reported that by 1965, the CIA's headquarters in Accra, the capital of Ghana, had about forty staff members who generously distributed donations to the secret opponents of President Nkrumah.

By February 1966, according to the article, the CIA prepared plans to overthrow the Nkrumah regime: The patient and diligent work of the CIA headquarters in Accra was crowned with total success. However, it was not until 1978 that history went astray in the United States. A former CIA official, John Stockwell, who served a long time in Africa, published a book in which he reveals the involvement of his Office.

Later, the New York Times cited the direct sources in intelligence and confirmed that the CIA advised and supported dissident officers in Ghana. Stockwell said that the CIA station in Accra received generous financial support and acted in close contact with the conspirators in the process of developing the coup.

The involvement of the residency was so great that during the coup, it became possible for the United States to restore some secret Soviet military equipment. The CIA also offered the headquarters in Washington to keep a small team of military instructors from the Special Forces ready, with black-painted faces planned to storm the Chinese embassy, destroy everyone inside, take secret reports, and blow up the building to hide this fact.

This proposal was rejected. According to Stockwell, the CIA headquarters honoured the Accra Residency with all the work to organize a coup in which eight Soviet advisers were killed. The Soviet Union, however, categorically denied that any of its advisers had been killed.

Other intelligence sources present in Ghana during the coup disagreed with Stockwell's view that the coup was entirely the work of the CIA. But they believed that his Office played a key role. Some officials in Washington admitted that the head of the CIA's headquarters in Accra, Howard T. Bane, was quickly promoted and took up a senior position in the Office.

After the coup, the CIA paid $100,000 to the new Ghanaian regime to confiscate Soviet equipment, including a lighter that operated as a camera. The Ghanaian leaders soon expelled a large number of Soviet employees, as well as Chinese and East Germans.

In fact, all state-owned industries moved into private hands. Soon, previously blocked channels of American aid were opened: grants, food, and development projects went from the United States, Western Europe, and the International Monetary Fund to Ghana.

Washington, for example, three weeks after the coup, in response to an urgent request from Ghana, approved a substantial amount of food aid. Although four months earlier, such a request from Nkrumah was rejected. 

A month after his expulsion, the international price of cocoa, the lifeblood of Ghana's economy, grew by 14 percent.

But what’s Ghana’s position now economically? Obviously, there is no past or present Ghanaian leader who is even qualified to polish the shoes of Kwame Nkrumah. Because of greed and the thirst for power, Nkrumah was hastily thrown out of office by a coup. 

He would have done better for Ghana if he had stayed in power a little bit longer.

THE HITLER-ISM IN MUGABE

Robert Mugabe liberated the Rhodesians from colonial oppression in 1980 but today's Zimbabweans demanded his resignation 

Do you know that Robert Mugabe before becoming the president of Zimbabwe was a teacher in Ghana? It was in the country formerly called Gold Coast; he met his first wife, a Ghanaian lady called Sally Francesca Heyfron. 

Like the late Ghanaian leader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Mugabe fought tirelessly to free Rhodesia under colonial oppression and in 1980, the newly freed country became Zimbabwe. 

The controversial Mugabe ruled Zimbabweans for 37 years with an iron fist. Was he too old to think about the welfare of the suffering people in this country?

Mugabe, the highly educated 93-year-old leader, doesn't like both American and British leaders and has spoken against a wide range of topics; from homosexuality and Britain to Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Mugabe ruled for almost four decades. His rule dramatically came to an end this week. Here are some of his famous quotes.

On imperialism

"Africa must revert to what it was before the imperialists divided it. These are artificial divisions which we, in our pan-African concept, will seek to remove." - Speech at Salisbury, 1962

"Stay with us, please remain in this country and constitute a nation based on national unity." - A plea to the white population of Zimbabwe at a Zanu-PF rally, 1980

"Only God, who appointed me, will remove me - not the MDC, not the British. Only God will remove me!" - Election rally, 2008. MDC is an opposition party.

"Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man, our real enemy." - Zanu-PF rally, 2002

On homosexuality:

"We ask, was he born out of homosexuality? We need continuity in our race, and that comes from the woman, and no to homosexuality. John and John, no; Maria and Maria, no. They are worse than dogs and pigs. I keep pigs and the male pig knows the female one." - ZDC radio interview, 2015

"We equally reject attempts to prescribe 'new rights' that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions, and beliefs. We are not gays!" - UNGA, 2015 

On Britain:

"Britain is a very cold, uninhabitable country with small houses." - Mutare rally, 2013 

"We are still exchanging blows with the British government. They are using gay gangsters. Each time I pass through London, the gangster regime of Blair 'expresses its dismay'." In reference to an incident in which human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell attempted a citizens' arrest on Mugabe during a visit to London in October 1999.

"We have fought for our land, we have fought for our sovereignty, small as we are we have won our independence and we are prepared to shed our blood ... So, Blair keeps your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe." - Earth Summit, South Africa, 2002.

On Hitler:

"I am still the Hitler of the time. This Hitler has only one objective: justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people and their rights over their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be Hitler tenfold. Ten times, that is what we stand for." - State funeral of a Cabinet minister, 2003

On the economy:

"Our economy is a hundred times better, than the average African economy. Outside South Africa, what country is [as good as] Zimbabwe? … What is lacking now are goods on the shelves - that is all." - Interview, 2007.

On Jesus Christ:

"I have died many times - that's where I have beaten Christ. Christ died once and resurrected once." - To state radio on 88th birthday

On cricket:

"Cricket civilizes people and creates good gentlemen I want everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe; I want ours to be a nation of gentlemen." - This is a widely reported quote, but it was unclear when Mugabe said this.

On US presidents:

"Let Mr. Bush read history correctly. Let him realize that both personally and in his representative capacity as the current president of the United States, he stands for this 'civilization', which occupied, which colonized, which incarcerated, which killed. 

He has much to atone for and very little to lecture us on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. His hands drip with [the] innocent blood of many nationalities." - UNGA, 2007

"I've just concluded - since President Obama endorses same-sex marriage, advocates homosexual people, and enjoys an attractive countenance - thus if it becomes necessary, I shall travel to Washington, DC, get down on my knee, and ask his hand." - ZDC radio interview, 2015

"Some of us were embarrassed, if not frightened, by what appeared to be the return of the biblical giant gold Goliath. Are we having a return of Goliath to our midst, who threatens the extinction of other countries?" - UNGA, 2017

"May I say to the United States President, Mr. Trump, please blow your trumpet. Blow your trumpet in a musical way towards the values of unity, peace, cooperation, togetherness, dialogue, which we have always stood for." - UNGA, 2017

On grooming a successor:

"Grooming a successor, is it an inheritance? In a democratic party, you don't want leaders appointed that way. They have to be appointed properly by the people." - TV interview, 2016