|
Americans
follow African slave trail
The BBC's Orla Guerin meets African Americans coming to Ghana
in the hope of connecting spiritually with West African ancestors
sold into slavery.
Many
slaves died in the dungeons of Cape Coast Castle
Tina Bailey feels the pull of Africa - so strongly that she
has just travelled to Ghana from her home in Tennessee for
the third time.
She
is one of many African Americans coming to follow in the footsteps
of ancestors they cannot name who were enslaved and sent to
the New World.
The
first stop for Tina's tour group is by the "slave river"
at Assin Manso - where captives had their last bathe on African
soil. Tina slips away from the group to spend a moment alone
by the water's edge. She says it is hard to see all this again,
but she feels compelled to.
"It's
very hard, it's very hurtful," she says, speaking through
her tears.
It's my connection to home
Tina Bailey
African American woman
"But if this happened to my people, I can at least walk
their path several times. It's my connection to home. It's
probably the only way I'll know where home is."
Tina
can't be sure her ancestors were Ghanaian. She knows they
came from West Africa and is considering DNA testing to try
to find out more. But for her this is a homecoming, and the
history here is deeply personal.
"This
is my pain," she says, "and my mother's pain, my
family's pain, and it hurts a lot," she says.
Ghanaian
welcome
Further
down the coast, the slave castles built by the European powers
still stand - brutal reminders of a time West Africa was robbed
of the young and the strong, and the future was taken away
in chains.
I am the sister who has returned, the daughter who has returned
Rosa Kincaid
African-American doctor
The first stop is at Cape Coast Castle - forbidding and fortified
- which was at the centre of the slave trade.
Tina
and her fellow tourists, who come from across the USA, descend
to the dungeons. They are airless, dark, desperate places.
Each one held up to 200 men, crammed in, struggling for breath.
They waited a month for the slave ships to arrive. Local experts
say more than half of them died.
The
tourists form a circle, joining their hands and bowing their
heads in honour of their dead ancestors.
Outside
in the courtyard, Obasi Kitambi, a doctoral student from Chicago,
says it was painful that his people "endured so much
treachery and torture and pain, and even today people are
not really acknowledging that".
But
he says it is "critical" that African Americans
make this journey.
Ghana
is keen to bring back the descendants of the slaves, to visit,
invest or take up residence.
It
is urging every African in the diaspora to make a pilgrimage
here at least once in their lifetimes, and bear witness to
history. Some are doing more than that.
Rosa
Kincaid, a doctor based in St Louis, has made a lasting connection
to the Ghanaian village of Kanka.
Wearing
traditional robes and draped in glittering jewellery, including
an ornate crown, she was made an honorary chief of the village,
where she hopes to build a clinic.
"I
am the sister who has returned, the daughter who has returned,"
she told villagers at the ceremony "and I thank you for
the opportunity to serve you all."
She
says it will not be easy to deliver a clinic for the villagers
but she hopes to be "empowered by the ancestors".
Sensing
the horror
Two
hundred years after Britain abolished the slave trade, there
is talk in Ghana of the need for the West to address the debts
of history - to begin a debate on the issue of reparations
and what form they might take.
Those who want reconciliation want to avoid the truth of the
exploitation
Rev Jesse Jackson
American civil rights activist
Many African Americans are haunted by slavery and its legacy,
and feel they have not received an adequate apology.
According
to the American civil rights activist, the Rev Jesse Jackson,
"there must be some sense of remorse, and some commitment
to attempt to repay the damage done".
On
a visit to Ghana, he told BBC News that the beneficiaries
of the slave trade, including Britain and America, should
face the truth of the past.
"It's
time for truth and reconciliation," he said.
"But
those who want reconciliation want to avoid the truth of the
exploitation. Africa is the foundation of Europe and America's
wealth. Africa is the creditor. Europe and America are the
debtors."
Back
at the coast, the last stop for the tourists is Elmina Castle,
which was built by the Portuguese in 1482 - before Columbus
discovered America.
They
squeeze through the narrow arch that leads to the "room
of no return". It's grimy and claustrophobic, empty of
everything but the sins of the past.
From
here the slaves were forced on to ships that would take them
across the Atlantic to toil and die.
"You
can feel the spirits here," Tina Bailey says.
"You
can smell what happened here. You can almost taste it. It
was quite a holocaust, very inhumane, and I'd like to say
never again - never, ever again."
For
Tina, Ghana is journey's end. After her death she wants her
ashes brought here from America and scattered at a beach along
the coast.
|
