Elmina was a beautiful fishing town.Busy.Every one was doing something. No one was just walking around to be walking around. Everyone was going some where for a purpose. its crazy the things you can just do when you come from privilege..at home people just wonder..
On the walk up the the castle a young man about 23 came up to me and asked if I was American and tried to shove merchandise in my face. My response was no Im not American, Im Black..he took is jewelry a way asked me my name and told me I was Ghanaian and welcome home.."too black too strong" he said as he shook my hand smiled as he walked away....this was pretty much every conversation started went during the remainder of my trip: Im not American...Im Black...Black reaches further..American is shallow..it means you can sucker me easily and I'll put up with you,it means I come from money and I'll give you poor Africans some because that just what we do, sit back and take pictures like we're in a Zoo...Black means im just as broke as you.It means I could be your long LONG lost cousin and I could have been working this market just like you. Black means some one from my past went through the door of no return but I returned... American means your a tourist....Im Black. Not American.
There were lots of stylistic differences between the Elmina castle and the Cape Coast Castle but non the less it was still a slave castle. An Ashente king was held there for months because he refused to give up is rule and the sacred artifacts of his people. I started putting myself into the positions of the captive to fully experience the place in different ways. They led us to the court yard where public displays of punishment were held. Thats were Portuguese also made the woman parade around as they watched from high up balconies and took their pick, raping who every they saw fit and refereed to the children of such brutalities as 'mulatto' meaning mule in Portuguese...
...Mule. a mixture between a donkey and a horse, two totally different species,a mutated human creation that cannot bread. mules are infertile .and the term is still used to refer to people of bi-racial black and white decent today...how much of slavery have we really gotten rid of when we call our selves this?
As soon as we got back in the van all the white kids are taking bets on how many Ghanaians they can 'get' as if it were a game...ironic...we had just left a slave castle where the Portuguese felt it was their God given right to pick any Black woman they wanted and rape her..Im sure it was a game to them too...how much have we really changed?
.:Kakum National Park:.
After Elmina. We drove up to Kakum National Park. I was ready for an intense mountain hike...then I looked back at the group and knew it was a long shot...
Walking around up there I couldn't help but feel a slight sense of pride at the fact that my ancestors probably knew this place like the backs of their hands.. What plants to eat and which to stay away from. Back when no one laid clam to the land itself trying to tame it, but just lives in harmony with it....its the same way I feel when I walk through a forest at home.. before the reservations and flood of white settlers..this was all us.
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