Cape Coast & El Mina: The Centre of Ghana’s Former Slave Trade

I didn’t know it before I picked up a guide book, but Ghana was at the centre of the slave trade from West Africa to Europe and the New World.  We’d been told that we HAD to go and see the remnants of this dark chapter in Ghana’s history, so for our first weekend we caught the bus down the coast to see the slave forts at Cape Coast and El Mina.

    
The slave fort at Cape Coast – a sobering experience.

    
Hundreds of slaves used to be crammed into the dungeons.

    
The fort is surrounded by the fishing community of Cape Coast.

   
The smaller village of El Mina a few kilometres down the coast.

While we were in the region we also took half a day to take a canopy tour through the rainforest in one of the nearby national parks.  This is a new eco-tourism project and the only one of its kind in West Africa.

   
Self-proclaimed “tree-hugger” Kirsten enjoys the canopy walk…