Cape Coast!
Friday, June 16th, day 43 - This was yesterday and I already don't remember a single thing of note about it. I was just at the hotel in Accra all day. Just caught up on writing and other such things on my laptop.
Saturday, June 17th, day 44 - Williams had made plans to meet up this morning to go do some sightseeing. We had tried to coordinate with Nadia but as usual I couldn't get ahold of her. She later told Williams she thought I had said we were meeting up in the evening.
Williams showed up at my hotel lobby around 9:30am, having come via local public transit from whereever he is staying these days. Up until this moment I had thought Elmina Castle was in Accra and Cape Coast Castle was in Cape Coast, but as we began to plan I learned they are actually both in Cape Coast, about a four hour drive west. "The" Accra castle is in fact Osu Castle, AKA Christianborg Castle.
Osu Castle, btw, began its development in the 1650s when the area was under Swedish control, of all things, and for most of the next 200 years it was the capital of the Danish-Norwegian Gold Coast. It was then the presidential palace of Ghana from 1960 through 2013. But this entry isn't about Osu Castle, I haven't been there yet though I'd like to.
So it would be four hours to Cape Coast. The hotel manager (?) happened to be in the hotel lobby with us at the time and he talked to a car rental place they deal with and determined it would be $220 for us to have a car and driver for the day. Meanwhile I had began to pull it up on uber, which is funny because I wouldn't have even thought to do that for a four hour trip but this is literally how I learned Elmina wasn't in Accra. It would be 344 cedis ($30.50) to get there. Well okay that's like $61 round trip so stuff this $220. First uber driver booked in called and asked me to cancel because he didn't want to go all the way to Cape Coast. Second one didn't say anything about it so off we went.
Car was super rickity. And I'm accustomed to driving that would be alarming by Western standards -- in a lot of the developing world there aren't really road rules and you've got to drive aggressively to get anywhere -- but I actually felt unsafe on account of his jerky line changes and corrections, and frequent beginning of a jerky lane change only to be dissuaded by the blaring horn of a truck that was right there and he hadn't actually looked first. I spent a lot of the drive thinking regretfully about how I hadn't bought insurance that would cover me on this trip -- considering I could definitely get reimbursed for it it was seeming like a real dumb omission. I was wondering how long our driver had been driving -- in The West one can safely assume most people have had their driving license since they reached the legal age to do so but that is not necessarily so at all in developing countries (the driver, Richard, appeared to be in his mid to late 20s).
Despite this I was able to sleep a bit during the drive, though more than once it was to wake up with a jolt to the blaring of a truck horn and jerky correction. I noted passed people selling bushmeat by the road a few times, holding up by the tail a small antelope (duikar?) or giant cane rat, or, on one occasion I swear to god much to my alarm he was holding a large dead wildcat (a serval?) by the tail.
The village of Elmina immediately beside the castle was cute, reminded me of a classic Mediterranean fishing town or something, lots of little shops and people bustling around.
The castle itself sat on the end of the point. There was another one on top of the hill -- apparently the Dutch used teh top of the hill to bombard the then-Portuguese owners of Elmina Castle in 1637 and then as owners of the castle fortified the top of the hill so no one could do the same to them.
Now its funny, one doesn't necessarily think of "West Africa" when one thinks of castles, and yet wikipedia tells me there were once 40 "slave castles" in on the Gold Coast List of Castles in Ghana wikipedia page lists three extant castles and 15 forts, (plus 11 more either ruined or with some traces remaining). Most of these castles and forts are built on the coast by Europeans and their history is mostly stories of European powers fighting over them though also fighting with locals (and Osu Castle for example was occupied by locals for a year in 1693 before being sold back to Denmark-Norway for the equavelent of $500,000 (in 2023 USD). The main distinguishing feature of the castles from what you picture as a European castle is that they're all covered in brilliant white plaster -- but you know I think a lot of European castles would have been initially covered in plaster / whitewash so maybe these ones actually look more Authentic than ye olde European castles in Europe.
As soon as we stepped out -- nay as soon as the door was open if not before that -- we were beset by some of the most pesistent and obnoxious hawkers I've encountered in sub-Saharan Africa. Fortunately there weren't a lot of them. They consisted of two guys who wanted to shake my hand and ask my name and where I came from, as one was particularly insisted on getting the spelling of my name right and even wrote it on his hand I marked him down in my mind as that he was going to write my name on some stupid souvenir and try to put it in my hand on my return; also there was an older women trying to sell us from her tray of beaded jewelry and a small child doing the same thing while whining that she couldn't afford to eat. I almost smiled at this because its just such a tired old ploy. I could barely get a word in edgewise with Williams during this initial attack.
And I had breezily said goodbye to our driver and was prepared not to worry at all about the rest of his day, but apparently he and Williams engaged in some last minute negotiating and Williams told me for 1000 cedis ($88.66) our driver would take us to the other sites we wanted to see and drive us back to Accra. Quick math said that sounded like a good deal, if it was 344 to get here, it an be assumed to be as much to go back, 300 to cover the other driving which I didn't yet quite know the distances of, sure. Though I was somewhat regretting that that would mean we were stuck with this terrifying driving and this car that seemed liable to break down at any moment.
We three headed into the castle, crossing the drawbridge. At the admissions window Williams asked if they were going to charge our driver since he was just our driver and I'm not sure he might have gotten discounted or free entry but it all came out to 70 cedis for the three of us (plus Williams DSLR camera which we've found ALWAYS causes a problem!). Neither Williams nor our driver had been here before so it was to be a culturally edifying experience for all.
We were directed to mill about in the old chapel building in the middle of the courtyard, which now has a bunch of informational displays in it, until the next tour group would start in about 15 minutes, on hte half hour. We ended up being a group of maybe 6-8 plus us three. Everyone else appeared to be Ghanaian. Our tour guide from the getgo struck me with his grim demeanor. While the castle had some relevant history before and after the slave trade, by far its most prominent history is as having been a holding place for slaves prior to being loaded onto ships and sent away forever. This is obviously serious history, and the guide seemed determined to make sure we knew it. When an older woman in our group asked a completely innocent question that didn't sound at all like a joke at one point he snapped at her that it was no laughing matter.
Our tour began with the cells where the female slaves had been kept, 100-150 to a cell in several cells around a courtyard behind what would be the castle's keep. It was in some of these that we saw the first of some flower-wreaths left recently in memory of the slaves. We were informed that the prettiest girls were paraded in the little courtyard between the cells here and the governor of the castle had a balcony above from which he would point out the prettiest girl to be brought up to him for his personal raping that night.
Later our tour led us up to that very balcony, and down below in the courtyard at that time there was a tour group entirey consisting of European women.
Next on the tour were the male slave dungeons along the lower level around the main courtyard. I think there were something like 600 female slaves and a few thousand males. From these we were led down to a small room the guide referred to as "the room of no return," because it was from a small door in the side of this room that the slaves would be let out to the ships to be shipped away forever. In this small room there was a number of flowers and wreaths and other offerings in remembrance. One of them had a note on it which read "to the mothers of the new world."
To the room of no return.
Then the tour led us up into the upper rooms where were used for castle administration, garrison or lodging for merchants and other visiting Europeans. One of the rooms we visited is currently the castle bookstore and I got distracted persuing books until our guide appeared like a stern apparition in front of me and thrust an open book in front of me and commanded me to read the passages indicated, which were about the proportion of slaves exported by country. I was a bit surprised to find that the United States was actually dwarfed by the number of slaves sent to the British Caribbean possessions, which were dwarfed themselves by the number sent to Brazil by Portugal ("In total about 12 million Africans were forcibly embarked and because of the high mortality aboard, about 10 million slaves were disembarked in: Brazil (45%), the British, French, Dutch, and Danish Caribbean (37%), Spanish America (11 %) and North America (4%)."). Although this infographic I've just come across in search for a visual aid to link here, seems to indicate that the number of slaves taken from the Gold Coast itself is dwarfed by the number taken from Central Africa. The things you learn and learn.
There was a book or two I was considering buying, one on Forts and Castles of Ghana, and one about the slave trade in Ghana. Both of which the specific question I was weighing in my head was "is there anything in this I wouldn't get from reading all the pertinent wikipedia pages though?" I kind of wish I'd gotten the slave trade one, just leafing through it it looked like it had a few pages about the Pikworo slave camp we were at earlier, which might have actually answered some of the inconsistencies I was left with between the guide and the wikipedia page. Alas I'm the opposite of an impulse buyer and as we hurried along I said maybe I'd come back for it but then we never got back to the bookstore.
The tour continued up to the upper floors including the governor's chambers themselves. They were bare of furniture (in the 20th century the castle had been used as a police academy and, I believe, a prison) but one could appreciate from the many windows with good views and fresh air blowing through them that they were MUCH more comfortable than the dungeons far down below. (And despite all this at least one of the governors died only two months after arrival from malaria, which I fancy wasn't an atypical European experience).
Cannons on the battlements, looking towards the fishermen's marina, town, and the other fort on the hill.
After we dispersed into the gift shop I caught this picture of our guide looking appropriately broody over his castle:
Someone misapprehending that I'd want him looking at the camera sksksksksked him, as one does to get attention here, resulting in a second photo of him looking at the camera.
As we headed to the car the hawkers descended on us again. The child pleading they hadn't eaten since Christmas, the matron saying "you promised you'd buy something on the way out!" (no I didn't), and I saw the two young men coming, and managed to get in the car and close the door just as he was reaching towards me with a large shell on which he had written some custom message for me with permanent marker. (sometimes I get too caught up being evasive though. On our way to Soana Island in Dominican Republic they took a photo of Cristina and I and when we came back tried to sell us a bottle of the local drink (mamajuana) with the picture of Cristina and I on the label and actually in retrospect I wouldn't have minded having that. But this marker message on a shell was a poor attempt)
From there we headed to Kakum National Park. This was about an hour inland from the castle. During this drive at one point our car spluttered and died but started right up again. Immediately prior to the park we passed a sign for the "international stingless bee center" or so Williams told me, I didn't see it myself. We resolved to come see it after Kakum but sadly it was closed by then. I wish we'd gone there first. When I mentioned it to Arne he said yes that's where he'd had a meeting that very day. Why doesn't anyone tell me these things? Why wasn't I invited to this meeting? Oh well.
The Kakum National Park visitor center was really nice, several nice well built buildings, a nice roofed over eating area. A lot of people there. Once again paid our entry fees, argued with them over Williams' camera ("you're not filming a documentary are you?" "no I swear I'm not!" (I really wonder if (A) there'd be less arguments if he didn't have a tripod and mic to clip onto people's shirts; (B) if if _I_ had a DSLR if it would be less controversial since us dorky whitefolks tend to carry them around anyway. I should propose as an experiment I'll carry it next time we enter somewhere), and asked for discounted admission for our driver. Anyway total fees were just a few dollars as usual.
This park is dense rainforest (the wikipedia page divides its list of flora into the categories of "Moist Forest," "Swamp Forest," "Riverine Forest," and "boval vegetation" whatever that means. There's apparently a treehoue you can spend the night in for only 70 cedis ($6.21), to see all the animals which are mostly nocturnal. Sounds like something worth doing some time!
But by far the most exciting element of the tour was the famous canopy bridges. 40 meters above the forest floor, and extending for about 700 meters between six bridges from tree to tree through the rainforest canopy, the swinging bridges felt very sturdy, consisting of solid planks over a structure like an aluminum ladder craddled in a netting that encloses bridge users up to elbow or shoulder height. As I love this kind of thing and it is/was worlds more sturdy than the bridge I'd crossed earlier in Guinea I felt perfectly fine and safe but of about the dozen to dozen-and-a-half of our tour group most crossed the bridges hesitantly, shrieking all the way.
It's funny, after only traveling these 700 meters, over maybe half an hour, how being through the adrenelin-causing experience of it brought our tour group of a dozen-and-a-half or so together. Our tour group at the castle had dispersed in the end without goodbyes to eachother, still as much strangers as we started, but by the time we reached the end of the bridges everyone wanted to take "we survived!" pictures together and was generally all feeling like we were In This Together.
They were selling coconuts, cocoa pods, and honey at a little stand along the walking trail between the bridges and the visitor center. I hadn't realized you could eat the raw seeds right out of a cocoa pod but apparently you can! One of my new friends let me try a few. Inside the pod there are these seeds coated in a gooey pulp, but unlike most seeds that are too hard to eat one can chew up the entire seeds and eat them. Its interesting it doesn't taste like chocolate but its not bad at all.
At the edge of the trail I saw what I assumed was a child's dropped souvenir plastic scorpion, bigger than hand-sized and an unrealistic-looking plasticky blue-green color. I almost tapped it with my foot but just to be sure I asked those around me "this isn't a real scorpion is it?"
"It is!
Gently poked with a stick, it scuttled back into the undergrowth. I'm glad I didn't try to touch it!
Presumably Williams got a better picture of it. I have actually yet to see any of his pictures.
As we were leaving we saw another one of our new friends with a bottle of some red drink. Hey is that sobolo? Where'd you get that?? They sell it here! I immediately bought one for myself (and for Williams and our driver). So someone IS making some "commercially," though it seems a very small scale enterprize. Skipping ahead to the next day (today), I contacted that company via facebook messenger and tehy're happy to deliver half a dozen bottles to me tomorrow! I'm excited!! Anyway this stuff was particularly delicious
As we were back on the road returning from the park, since my phone was about to die, while I could still confirm the uber deduction I wanted to discuss payment with our driver -- since uber would have auto deducted the 344 cedis for the trip to Elmina I would be paying him 700 to bring it up to 1000. But actually looking at hte receipts things appeared more complicated by the fact that uber seems to have only charged 126 cedis for the previous trip? Maybe because I'd turned off my phone to save batteries and maybe his phone has lost connection too? Good thing we hadn't just said goodbye at Elmina he'd have been shafted for pay through Uber. So I explained this to him and that I'd be paying him the 900 cedi difference at the end of our trip.
"No it will be one thousand five" he tells me
"One zero zero five?" I ask, baffled about the quibble over 5. But Williams jumped in to berate him on the morality of changing the price on us, since we agreed to one thousand, and I think "one thousand five" must be local slang for "one thouand five hundred" by Williams reaction.
"I didn't know how far it would be to this place!" he objected. But Williams successfully argued him back to the original price. Altogether I greatly enjoy traveling with Williams, not only is he a nice guy who is fun to be around, he's extroverted enough that he makes connections with other people that I wouldn't have, and he has a strong sense of what is morally right, so I can depend on him crushing any attempted shenanigans.
At this time Williams and I remembered Rolanda, another of the workers at the hotel in Walewale last year, goes to school in Cape Coast, and we'd be in trouble with her if we didn't make an attempt to see her. We called her, she was at the university there in Cape Coast, and had just gotten out of class. So we could easily stop in at the front gate and meet her. Our driver was now in a mood to grumble about any new sidequests though.
We entered the university by what was unbeknownst to us NOT the "main gate," rendering Rolanda's instructions that assumed we'd come in the main gate confusing, so we got a bit lost, leading to a lot more grumbling from our driver, but finally we found her and had time to just give her hugs and take pictures for a minute or two before we had to continue on our way.
The sun soon set, so we spent the next four hours driving through the dark, with again the driver's questionable driving skills and questionable car. I was sure we were going to die.
At one point our driver bought some yam from a roadside vendor and it occurred to me that I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast but strangely still didn't feel hungry, I don't know what's been going on with my appetite (and had consumed less than one 500ml bottle of water, though I had had the bottle of sobolo).
just on the outskirts of Accra the car suddenly made a high pitch whining noise, the dash lights all went out as did the headlights, and a truck blared its horn behind us as we quickly began to decelerate. Welp this is it I said to myself.
The driver managed to safely bring us to a stop on the shoulder. Attempting to start the car again the engine would roll over and catch, like it wasn't failing ignition entirely, but it would immediately die after he stopped turning the key. He tried turning the key a few times, and waiting a bit and trying again, no luck. By now it was entirely dark out and we were still at least an hours drive from my hotel. I found myself wondering both how I'd get home (not too much of a worry, with Williams we could either navigate local transit or take a different uber), and moreover what my moral duties towards our driver could be considered to be -- ie if his car is totally broken would it be moral just to be like "okay sorry bye" and leave him there or should I do something to help him out. Surely I couldn't be seen as financially liable to help him out of this situation but would he see it that way?
Fortunately, after he had popped the hood and rummaged around, and it looked like tied something back together, the car now started. We continued on our way without incident.
Dropped Williams off at a central public transit hub by the Accra Mall, asked him if he needed any money for public transit he said he might need 50, and if he didn't he'd give it back to me. I feel I can trust him implicitly.
From there we proceeded to my hotel. Richard said it would actually be three more hours to his own house but he'd sleep in his car small small before continuing. I paid him the 900 cedis, and then he begged me for more out of the goodness of my heart. Despite some very mild shenanigans and fear unducing driving he had actually seemed like a nice guy, so I gave him 100 cedis more. He continued to beg but I told him that was all I could spare and bid him goodnight, and the last thing I heard him saying was "you're a good man Kris!" so I don't think I left him bitter. Williams had taken his number for if we need a future driver around Accra but I really don't know if I feel safer with him than taking my chances with the luck of the draw.
It was now just before 10pm. I tried for the next hour to get somewhere to deliver food to me but it appears all delivery places in Accra stop doing deliveries at 10pm so I ended up jjust having a clif bar and going to bed. The End.
The next day Williams reported he had gotten home around 1am. HE had a long travel day!