African Slave Fort Tour

African Slave Fort Tour
Cape Coast Ghana
Saturday, August 19, 2006

It is possible to think of Ghana as a great place to take a slave fort tour, the whole coast line is one fort after another, and there is history here, not clearly marked, nonetheless, there is history.

I do not think these fort would be accurately access if only thought of as slave forts. They are more than slave forts, as best I can see the business of slave trading went from the years 1444 to about 1888, about 400 years of exportation of black people to be slaves in other countries. The biggest type of forced immigration I can think of, now they are begging to go to America… hehehe, not a good joke, but still is correct, the people of West Africa are a little obsessive on the idea of leaving their countries, a little desperate and too easy on the idea, to quick to think it is a good idea to leave.

I am interesting in the Slave Trade Business, I am not sure I really care so much to see how bad it was. In the fort in Shama, the man or manager of the fort portrayed the harsh conditions as if they were torturing the slaves.

As a business owner, the owner of cattle, or goats as they have many here, they would not torture a goat or the cattle. It is what is raised or owned for profit, you do not try to kill you profits. Now, I have traveled the planet enough to know that caring about other people is almost none existent. The actual, I care about anyone other than myself is not normal on the planet. Therefore, it is easy to believe an ever-ignorant trader of flesh would probably not care whether their property lived or died. They would only care if the lost money. According to the availability of new bodies is how much they would care, if they could find replacements than no problem, let some die, do not worry, maybe figure out who is strong enough for the boat ride, and who needs culled.

I was chastised or told I was wrong last year in Niamey, when I suggest to the girl oh-too-lazy working for Oxfam that the chiefs of villages rounded up black people and brought then to the ships. She said, I did lot of research and this is not true. I personally know persons, she never read a book in her life, and this type of research is difficult, almost impossible in Niamey, Niger.

However, I am still wondering what percentages, how much did the local black leaders help. 50/50 10 percent help, and 90 percent fight.

I am thinking, I would guess, I could walk out of the room and buy a baby very easily. A mouth to feed, uninterrupted too many babies here, makes babies a cheap commodity if it was a commodity.

Cultural experience says or I would believe that there was a 90 percent cooperation and a 10 percent fighting off the slave traders. I think the leaders of Africa were probably collaborating in this time period to help the slave traders, not really fighting.

I am sitting here reading my Encarta Encyclopedia articles about Slavery or Slave Trading. According to the Encyclopedia hidden behind some politically correct ways of saying it, it explains that Africa would collect, and then take to the coast, where the Europeans would gather and take to market in other places.

This is a quote, trying to explain that Africa suffered from lack of business income when it ended; the leaders of Africa were out of business.

- The ending of the slave trade and slavery in Africa had wide-ranging effects on the African continent. Many societies that for centuries had participated in an economy based on slave labor and the trading of slaves had difficulty finding new ways to organize labor and gain wealth. Meanwhile, colonial governments in Africa that outwardly disapproved of slavery still needed inexpensive laborers for agriculture, industry, and other work projects. As a result, African leaders and former slave owners, as well as colonial officials, often developed methods of coercing Africans to work without pay or for minimal compensation. Moreover, the outlawing of slavery did not erase the pain and stigma of having been a slave. Many descendants of slaves were affected by this stigma for generations after slavery was abolished.-

I think the myth-making world has this idea that groups of people care what happens to people. The individual person wants to give groups, governments or business a conscious, Individual in my mind maybe have a conscious, some cultures more than others do. However, to cast a net over any people, race, ethnic or any group and say, they have a good conscious is naïve. Yes, with cultural change, a country does learn and enforce not essential ideas like
- Do not throw trash. -
- Slavery is bad. -
- Do not run over people with your car. -

I do not believe anyone in 80 percent of the planet would get in any real trouble if they ran over me with their car. In the small group of the Western World maybe 1/6 of the planet yes, but the 5/6s of the planet that is normal running over a person is an inconvenience, a sad happening, however not important enough to care about. If it was, they would drive careful, not the case.

Cars kill more people than any social problem on earth, which is my belief, nothing compares to the immediate threat of being killed in a car accident. It is your highest probability of dying in another country or even your own, AIDS is just a problem, cars are killers.

For me to study the history of this coast of Africa, I need to empathize with how the person felt. What was motivating a ship owner, why stop at the Cape here, why continue on, or go back, what they gathered to take back and earn money. Did they just pillage the local area to gather supplies, or did they survive by business. I often think piracy is the form of business before maybe 1880 was piracy or privateering and this nice idea of business happening was malarkey. A good pirate survived, a merchant had problems, they would to me, need to be good at both.

NGOs now are the new Pirates of the world; they are robbing the coffers of good people and pretending they are in the business of helping people. They try to keep cultures dependent upon the hope of a handout. They give just enough money and aid to stop the people from learning to help themselves, there is always the promise,
- We will give you money and aid-

The locals seem to be waiting for Godot, they wait, they wait, and hope their ship comes in; they all want to win the lottery. In a land or plenty, waiting for the lottery to come in is silly, when just the smallest amount or work is beneficial.

African Slave Fort Tour

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The slave forts were often very unpleasant and because people had often died there, very smelly. Also they were partly underground therfore also dark.

Hope this helps in whatever way.

African Slave Fort Tour

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