Imagine

“It’s crazy. Not long ago there were people running around here hunting for slaves.” I looked out the bus window and tried to process what Julie had just said. It made my skin crawl and gave me a lump in my throat. When we got to the slave castle I just felt numb. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I wanted to cry but there were no tears. I wanted to vomit, but my stomach just felt like a void. Never before have I felt like I did that day.

Two weekends ago CIEE, my program, took us to Cape Coast, which is a town on the coast of Ghana that is home to two slave castles, Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle. We went to Elmina. It was originally set up by the Portuguese, but then taken over by the British. Its purpose was to hold captured slaves until either death or their shipment to the Caribbean, U.S., or other places of servitude.

We were given a tour of the place and were shown the many different parts. We went into the female and male holding cells where men and women would be shoved tightly into small rooms for about 3 months at a time. We also went through to the door of no return. This door was the last they saw of the Ghanaian shore before being piled into the slave ships. It was one of the narrowest doors I’ve seen. Upstairs there were the governor’s quarters and his colleagues’ living space. It was disgustingly nice. There was a fireplace and his bedroom had painted walls and wood floors. I can’t imagine how evil a person must be to be able to enjoy a nice fireplace when there are men dying and women being raped downstairs. There was even a Bible verse posted on the wall of one of his rooms.

The hypocrisy of it all is baffling. The English, Dutch, and Portuguese that operated out of that castle all considered themselves men of God. There’s even a Portuguese church in the middle of the courtyard. There were priests integral to their operations and who lived on the grounds. It’s absolutely disgusting. Our tour guide said that he had thought about it for a long time and came to the conclusion that they had no connection with any Christian God. It’s amazing how perverted religion can be to commit some of the greatest crimes of humanity.

There was also a room designated for the rape of women. The children of those rapes were outcast as Mulattos and were rejected by both the white and black in Ghana. Another room was a death cell. Above the door is a skull and crossbones. As I stepped in I was overcome with the odor of death. It still smelled of death. They would cram up to 60 people in this room of maybe 10x15 feet. They were left in there until every last human died. There are etchings and scratches on the walls. Now the only occupant of the room is a heart wreath left by an African-American who came to visit the place of their ancestry.

The castle is such a repulsive place but at the same time, a visitor’s first impression is its beauty. It’s a giant white stone castle on the ocean, surrounded by palm trees. It’s eerie how something can be so incredibly horrific and beautiful at the same time. It’s almost like you feel guilty for noticing the beauty.

After we left the castle we went to Slave River. Most of the slaves collected were captured in the northern and central parts of Ghana, not directly on the coast. As part of their journey to the coast, they were taken to this particular river to be bathed one last time. We went down to the waters and stuck in our fingers to remember those who were shackled. As we did this there were Ghanaian children mingling with us, trying to get money. It makes me sick to see what the world has done to these people.

After this trip we had a group discussion about all of it. Different things stuck out to different people. The thing that struck me the most was the realization that such deep divisions still exist. The average human mind seems almost incapable of seeing the fact that we’re all human. The divisions between race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, sexuality, etc, are so incredibly strong. It seems to me that the many of the people in the world can’t see past these minor differences and just open up their arms. I feel that there is a real lack of empathy in humanity. Humans are unable to fathom horrors that they haven’t either witnessed or experienced. None of us really can, but we can realize that there is an unimaginable pain that needs to be stopped. We hear through the media or through word-of-mouth that there are ridiculous amounts of child soldiers in Burma, or there is mass raping in the eastern DRC, or that 100,000 civilians have died in Iraq. People will see that these are horrible things, but I don’t think enough of us really realize how terrible it is. I feel as though too many people see these as just distant images, removed from their own society, something that doesn’t affect them directly; something that can be dealt with by political leaders, if they can fix anything at all. It really affects us all, though. All these atrocities reflect humanity. And we are humanity.

I just kept staring out the window on the way back. There was a little boy squatting to defecate on a large pile of trash. A minute down the road was a resort with a waterslide. In my ears all I could hear was John Lennon.

Imagine there’s no heaven

It’s easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people living life in peace

You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope some day you’ll join us

And the world will live as one

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people sharing all the world

You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope some day you’ll join us

And world will live as one.