= Sunday, a young woman had been baptized last week but had not been confirmed; I was asked to be the voice for the ordinance. Each of us placed a hand on her head. Then using the authority I have received from Christ through laying on of hands in unbroken succession, I confirmed her a member of the church, gently commanded her to receive the Holy Ghost, and gave her a blessing.
= We found a "road" that let us park the truck above the church and walk down a short way instead of leaving the truck near the street. To orient the new Area doctor to conditions here, we took photos of places where missionaries can buy medicine.
= At https://keyman.com/keyboards/ghanakeyboards#expand-languages I finally found a useful Twi keyboard for the laptop. And, I signed up for a Twi course through LearnAkan.
= We looked at our Patriarchal Blessings and shared brief quotes from them with each other, seeing how some of the things mentioned there have come to pass.
= Monday, we learned how shouldering the Barilleaus' duties will shake out when they leave in October: I'll do what Elder Barilleau does, and Sister Morgan will do what Sister Barilleau does. Steph will continue to be medical coordinator.
= President Morgan agreed to let me stop converting bicycles from multi-gear to single-gear, a practice of my predecessor to reduce repair issues. Bent pedals showed that missionaries were using all their force to get up hills when a single-gear bicycle was used.
= Steph arranged for care and paid the bill for missionaries at Oak Tree Medical Services; we fed them at KFC and they headed to their apartment. Then about 8 PM, they called to tell us that one of them had money stolen out of his bag and during the theft, his companion's medicine was stolen, medicine that has to be taken every 12 hours. We drove there in the dark through roads we might not have braved in daylight.
= Still on the road at 10 PM, we listened to President Nelson's 100th birthday celebration through Steph's phone and watched it that way when we got home. A noted heart surgeon until he was called to serve the church, as the senior apostle, he was set apart and sustained as the Prophet and President of the church in 2018 after the death of the previous prophet. 36 years ago, he visited our little branch in Turkey.
= We found a "road" that let us park the truck above the church and walk down a short way instead of leaving the truck near the street. To orient the new Area doctor to conditions here, we took photos of places where missionaries can buy medicine.
= At https://keyman.com/keyboards/ghanakeyboards#expand-languages I finally found a useful Twi keyboard for the laptop. And, I signed up for a Twi course through LearnAkan.
= We looked at our Patriarchal Blessings and shared brief quotes from them with each other, seeing how some of the things mentioned there have come to pass.
= Monday, we learned how shouldering the Barilleaus' duties will shake out when they leave in October: I'll do what Elder Barilleau does, and Sister Morgan will do what Sister Barilleau does. Steph will continue to be medical coordinator.
= President Morgan agreed to let me stop converting bicycles from multi-gear to single-gear, a practice of my predecessor to reduce repair issues. Bent pedals showed that missionaries were using all their force to get up hills when a single-gear bicycle was used.
= Steph arranged for care and paid the bill for missionaries at Oak Tree Medical Services; we fed them at KFC and they headed to their apartment. Then about 8 PM, they called to tell us that one of them had money stolen out of his bag and during the theft, his companion's medicine was stolen, medicine that has to be taken every 12 hours. We drove there in the dark through roads we might not have braved in daylight.
= Still on the road at 10 PM, we listened to President Nelson's 100th birthday celebration through Steph's phone and watched it that way when we got home. A noted heart surgeon until he was called to serve the church, as the senior apostle, he was set apart and sustained as the Prophet and President of the church in 2018 after the death of the previous prophet. 36 years ago, he visited our little branch in Turkey.
= Tuesday, Steph wasn't feeling good. So, I went to the office by myself, shadowed some of the Barilleaus' activities, and focused on overseeing bicycle repair. I went to the post office with the Barilleaus, and I was introduced to the people whom they receive packages through: one person for items for which duty has been paid and one for items on which duties are owed.
= Wednesday, we learned that our neighbors in the States are having to put up with dogs barking night and day from our tenants; I contacted the management company. Steph and I drove to Yamoransa to inspect an apartment. More financial training. Medicine pickup from the Cape Coast Pharmacy (tricky to reach and park near). [This was 9/11; no terrorists chose to commemorate that date today.]
= Thursday, we delivered medication to Elders beyond Mankessim. At Melcom (variety store) in Mankessim, we met Muslims in seven-year training to become missionaries. They knew a little about our church. We learned from them. It was a positive encounter. At the office, we showed the Barilleaus photos of coffins we had seen while driving from Mankessim; Google "Ghana coffins" to see some unusual creations.
= Friday (the thirteenth), we went to Cape Coast Beach Restaurant with the Barilleaus and then to Cape Coast Castle, one of the gateways for slave trafficking.
= The dungeons were soul-crushing. Thousands of human beings were rounded up; sold to the companies that would transport them; sorted, the weakest killed and thrown into the sea; and the rest shackled, branded with a company identifier, and forced into areas about the size of our living room. They stayed there for months, sitting on their own excrement and each other (and for ladies in separate quarters, in their menstrual blood), shackled to someone else, waiting for the next ships to arrive for transport.
= Churches justified this by saying that Africans had no soul. When missionaries arrived, they did nothing to restrain this activity. A church sat above the dungeons here and in other trafficking places; the smell of those incarcerated below would have been obvious.
= Before Europeans stepped in, when one tribe conquered another, it took that other tribe’s people, but those people kept their identity and culture. To support the kind of trafficking that took place here, outside countries selling arms to tribes fed the need for arms to fight other tribes: the price for the arms was human lives. Agents in Ghana and elsewhere rounded up human beings and marched them here for exploitation and exportation.
= Saturday, we stayed home. I blogged and did laundry. We prepared for the possibility that we might be asked to teach at church tomorrow.
= Friday (the thirteenth), we went to Cape Coast Beach Restaurant with the Barilleaus and then to Cape Coast Castle, one of the gateways for slave trafficking.
= The dungeons were soul-crushing. Thousands of human beings were rounded up; sold to the companies that would transport them; sorted, the weakest killed and thrown into the sea; and the rest shackled, branded with a company identifier, and forced into areas about the size of our living room. They stayed there for months, sitting on their own excrement and each other (and for ladies in separate quarters, in their menstrual blood), shackled to someone else, waiting for the next ships to arrive for transport.
= Churches justified this by saying that Africans had no soul. When missionaries arrived, they did nothing to restrain this activity. A church sat above the dungeons here and in other trafficking places; the smell of those incarcerated below would have been obvious.
= Before Europeans stepped in, when one tribe conquered another, it took that other tribe’s people, but those people kept their identity and culture. To support the kind of trafficking that took place here, outside countries selling arms to tribes fed the need for arms to fight other tribes: the price for the arms was human lives. Agents in Ghana and elsewhere rounded up human beings and marched them here for exploitation and exportation.
= Saturday, we stayed home. I blogged and did laundry. We prepared for the possibility that we might be asked to teach at church tomorrow.
Pass
'Saiko' is the word used by fishers to describe the illegal transfer of fish between boats. As the commercial species dwindled from overfishing, trawlers began to intentionally target the smaller fish on which local canoe fishers had traditionally depended and sell it back to fishing communities for profit. The irony of saiko is that purposely-built wooden canoes go to sea without any fishing gear (nets, etc.) or refrigeration, but return to shore with hundreds of slabs of well frozen fish. With such skewed competition from non-Ghanaian beneficiary owners for small pelagic fish - against the artisanal fleet which is fully Ghanaian owned - saiko proves to be ominous against the prospect of rejuvenating the declining small-pelagic fish stocks in Ghanaian waters, and also limiting Ghanaian participation in industrial fishing. The landing of such immature small pelagic fish ultimately deprive the artisanal canoe fishers the opportunity of catching these fishes when they mature: the main target of that industry. It can therefore be said that the industrial trawlers are in strong competition with the artisanal canoe fleet despite the fact that the trawlers may be fishing outside the 30m-deep Inshore Exclusive Zone (IEZ). Moreover, such substantial catch of small-pelagic fish is unreported and does not feature in marine fishery statistics. Trawler vessels, therefore, could be said to be reporting only about a quarter to a third of the actual catch and therefore committing infractions regarding non-reporting of catch. -- https://fcwc-fish.org/our-news/ghana-saiko-is-sacrilege
Caskets under construction and on display
Music is a sound of life.
Alpha and Omega God.
Ɔye Adom {He is a Grace}.
View through the windows of Cape Coast Restaurant
A model of the castle. The right (east) courtyard is raised; the left courtyard (west) is at ground level.
Photos of descriptions of the construction history were unclear; so, they have been transcribed below.
Cape Coast Castle as it exists today was built over a period of 300 years. Its early history is obscure; the first structure on the site was a timber trading lodge built by the Swedes in 1654, in a land then known as the Gold Coast. This lodge was soon replaced by a fort built in stone, which changed hands several times before 1664, when it was finally captured by the English.
Its subsequent metamorphosis into a castle as the headquarters of the Royal African Company - its transformation through extensive alteration, demolition, reconstruction, and addition over the following 300 years and for its use for wide variety of purposes - is the subject of this exhibition.
You are invited to explore its fascinating history and discover how and why and when it took the shape and the form it has today. And when you walk around the castle, enter its dungeons, visit some of its many rooms, and climb to its bastions and battlements, let its walls speak to you of the splendor and the sorrow and the suffering and the shame of those who had lived and died here.
The late seventeenth century castle, though impressive to look at, had not been well-built and was proving very difficult to keep sound and watertight. Mud had been used instead of lime for mortar, and the walls were barely strong enough to withstand bombardment from the sea.
At this time, the Western Spur was rebuilt, enlarged and strengthened, and the outer wall and raised platform on the seaward side of the main courtyard was also strengthened. Below this platform, an underground dungeon was formed to increase the capacity for slave confinement. By 1750, the castle could hold 1500 slaves. Cisterns under the main courtyard collected rainwater from the castle roofs and from the paved surface of the courtyard, and provided water for the use of slaves. (Europeans in the castle drew their water from ponds in the locality, outside the walls, which may account for the constant ill-health and high mortality recorded among the castle staff.)
Repairs and alterations were carried out periodically, when trade was good and funds were available for this purpose. But when in 1751, the Royal African Company was supplanted by the London Committee of Merchants, a major program of reconstruction and refortification was launched.
In 1756, the committee of merchants engaged the services of Justly Watson, an expert in fortification. He carried out a thorough inspection of the castle and drew up a reconstruction plan which took sixteen years to implement.
The main southern range of buildings were raised in height from two to three stories; the remains of the original Swedish fort, which projected into the main courtyard, were demolished, and the courtyard enlarged; and the Western Spur was again rebuilt and refortified with a row of vaulted rooms against the wall and cannons mounted on the flat roofs above.
To the east of the south bastion was the weakest part of the whole fortification, facing as it did, straight out to the sea. The entire south of the castle was demolished in 1768 and replaced by a huge fortified battery designed by an English officer, John Grossle; which contained, below the platform mounted with cannon, an enormous vaulted slave dungeon.
In 1770, Greenhill point, the east bastion, collapsed, and was rebuilt with a pair of bastions flanking a new sea gate, located for the loading and offloading of goods between the castle and the beach.
Governor Dalziel (1792-1798) added two floors to the Southern range of buildings, providing accommodation for the Governor, and created the tower known today as Dalziel tower.
Entrance to another dungeon
From outside, the door has been labeled "Door of Return". Remains of some slaves have been retrieved from where they died, and in a symbolic gesture have been reburied in Ghana. Some ancestors of slaves have come here to symbolically return.
Today, only a fishing port remains.
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