# The Horrifying Dungeons of Elmina Castle

An episode of [Scary Interesting Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1705969819), 5 Aug 2026, 19 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73453539/the_horrifying_dungeons_of_elmina_castle.mp3

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## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Take a look at this castle. This is a castle
[0:03] Speaker 1: known as Elmina Castle. It's quite beautiful from the outside
[0:08] Speaker 1: and was clearly once an important place, and in fact
[0:11] Speaker 1: it's the oldest European structure in Sub Saharan Africa. Unfortunately,
[0:16] Speaker 1: and horror fyally, all that means is that the atrocities
[0:18] Speaker 1: that took place in its dungeons went on for centuries.
[0:23] Speaker 1: The rooms beneath this pristine white exterior were but as
[0:25] Speaker 1: disturbing as you can find anywhere on Earth. There are
[0:29] Speaker 1: a lot of disturbing things covered in the channel, and
[0:31] Speaker 1: it's not really possible to compare them, But if I
[0:33] Speaker 1: had to go with my gut and just pick one,
[0:35] Speaker 1: I think I could easily make the case that this
[0:37] Speaker 1: is the one on the sheer scale of the horrors alone.
[0:40] Speaker 1: So with that said, although the events in this video
[0:42] Speaker 1: are fleeting and nondescriptive, they're still highly disturbing, so viewer
[0:46] Speaker 1: discretion is strongly vised. From the outside, Elmina Castle trees
[1:00] Speaker 1: very little about what went on inside its walls. It
[1:04] Speaker 1: rises bright and white beside the Atlantic Ocean as a
[1:06] Speaker 1: massive stone structure, overlooking the coast of Ghana. Around it,
[1:10] Speaker 1: the modern town of Elmina just goes about life as usual.
[1:14] Speaker 1: Fishing boats move across the water and waves crashed against
[1:17] Speaker 1: the shore. Markets and stands are set up all around,
[1:20] Speaker 1: allowing the locals to sell their wares and goods. People
[1:23] Speaker 1: just go about their everyday normal lives in the shadow
[1:25] Speaker 1: of a building with a dark and unspeakable past that
[1:28] Speaker 1: is stood on the same foundation for more than five centuries.
[1:32] Speaker 1: To a visitor arriving there for the first time, the
[1:34] Speaker 1: area around the castle can feel strangely beautiful. There's the
[1:38] Speaker 1: ocean and the cool sea breeze that helps offset the
[1:40] Speaker 1: blazing sunlight. The castles white walls surrounding beautiful courtyards almost
[1:45] Speaker 1: force you to squint with how bright they are in
[1:46] Speaker 1: the daylight, and there's a sense that you're standing before
[1:49] Speaker 1: one of the most important historic sites in West Africa,
[1:52] Speaker 1: and Elmina Castle is now a museum and a UNESCO
[1:55] Speaker 1: World Heritage Site, making it one of Ghana's major landmarks
[1:58] Speaker 1: and a thriving tourist attraction. People come from all over
[2:01] Speaker 1: the world to walk through it. But once visitors get
[2:04] Speaker 1: inside its walls, however, their first impression of it begins
[2:06] Speaker 1: to change. The castle's immense beauty is no way separate
[2:10] Speaker 1: from its horror. In some ways, it makes the atrocities
[2:13] Speaker 1: that occurred there harder to understand. The same walls that
[2:17] Speaker 1: gleam in the sun once in closed rooms where human
[2:19] Speaker 1: beings were held in total darkness. The same courtyards visitors
[2:23] Speaker 1: cross day were once part of a system that tor
[2:25] Speaker 1: families apart, punished resistance, and prepared captives for ships waiting offshore.
[2:30] Speaker 1: The same building that held European soldiers, merchants, governors, and
[2:34] Speaker 1: clergymen also contained dungeons or enslaved Africans were packed together
[2:38] Speaker 1: in stifling heat and overwhelming filth. This is the contradiction
[2:42] Speaker 1: Almina Castle forces new visitors to confront almost immediately Above ground,
[2:47] Speaker 1: the castle appears to be ornate and peaceful, but below
[2:49] Speaker 1: ground there's a different store to be told. Modern tours
[2:53] Speaker 1: often begin in the open spaces of the castle, where
[2:55] Speaker 1: visitors can still feel the sea air and see the
[2:57] Speaker 1: bright blue Atlantic beyond the walls. The guides here will
[3:00] Speaker 1: explain the about history of the place, which will cover
[3:02] Speaker 1: in a moment, but that history starts to hit harder
[3:05] Speaker 1: the further you go. Eventually, the tour moves inward and
[3:08] Speaker 1: downward away from the light. Visitors are led toward the dungeons,
[3:13] Speaker 1: and the transition from many is felt emotionally and even physically.
[3:17] Speaker 1: The air changes as the light falls away, and stone
[3:19] Speaker 1: walls feel like they start to close in on you.
[3:22] Speaker 1: In some passages, visitors have to lower their heads or
[3:24] Speaker 1: crouch as they move to the narrow openings. What above
[3:28] Speaker 1: ground seem like a majestic castle by the sea suddenly
[3:31] Speaker 1: and pervasively becomes heavier and more confined, and the further
[3:35] Speaker 1: visitors go beneath the surface, the more oppress of the feeling,
[3:37] Speaker 1: to the point where even modern flashlights can feel dim
[3:41] Speaker 1: Inside those dark and low underground chambers. Guides describe what
[3:45] Speaker 1: the space is once held. They tell visitors that captives
[3:48] Speaker 1: were crowded to rooms where they were stagnant air, little light,
[3:51] Speaker 1: and no proper sanitation. They describe people sleeping on stone
[3:55] Speaker 1: floors where others were forced to relieve themselves in the
[3:57] Speaker 1: midst of hunger, sickness, heat, and a long wait before
[4:00] Speaker 1: being shipped off. They recite stories of men and women
[4:04] Speaker 1: who were separated, families that were broken apart within the castle,
[4:07] Speaker 1: and that some people remained in the dungeons for weeks
[4:10] Speaker 1: or months before they were forced toward the sea. Then
[4:13] Speaker 1: the guides will turn out the lights. The darkness that
[4:16] Speaker 1: then engulfs the room is all encompassing, and it initially
[4:19] Speaker 1: shocks many who enter the dungeons. The only relief at
[4:22] Speaker 1: that moment is knowing that someone will eventually turn the
[4:25] Speaker 1: flashlights back on before the people. Once in prison, there
[4:27] Speaker 1: no such certainty existed for them. Darkness was a condition
[4:31] Speaker 1: they lived in with in captivity twenty four hours a day,
[4:35] Speaker 1: and there was no fresh air waiting for them the
[4:36] Speaker 1: rest of their time in the castle, at least, not
[4:38] Speaker 1: in any way worth looking forward to. The almost indescribable stench,
[4:42] Speaker 1: which can still be sensed inside these chambers to this day,
[4:45] Speaker 1: is enough to turn stomachs. This is why Elmina Castle
[4:48] Speaker 1: is not just a place you go, It's a place
[4:50] Speaker 1: you feel. In the brief moment of pitch black that
[4:53] Speaker 1: the guides thrust visitors into, guests often have visceral reactions.
[4:57] Speaker 1: Some will simply fall silent as they take in the environment,
[5:00] Speaker 1: but most will break down into tears. Those who have
[5:03] Speaker 1: taken the tour described the experience as overwhelming in a
[5:06] Speaker 1: way no book or documentary could fully prepare them for.
[5:09] Speaker 1: When the flashlights finally flicker back on and the visitors
[5:12] Speaker 1: are finally able to see again, they're often haunted by
[5:14] Speaker 1: the looks on the faces of fellow tourgoers. And all
[5:17] Speaker 1: of this happens before they ever reached a place in
[5:19] Speaker 1: the castle known as the Door of no Return. Long
[5:24] Speaker 1: before Elmina Castle stood on the Ghanaian coast, the shoreline
[5:27] Speaker 1: around it was rich and alive with commerce. Before Europeans
[5:31] Speaker 1: gave it the name Elmina, the settlement was known as
[5:33] Speaker 1: Asso Monson, and name that translates to inexhaustible water. And
[5:37] Speaker 1: the societies of the Gold Coast weren't arranged around a
[5:40] Speaker 1: single kingdom or empire. They were instead made up of
[5:43] Speaker 1: many communities and states, which were often influenced by kinship,
[5:46] Speaker 1: family authority, and local politics. But when Europeans arrived in
[5:50] Speaker 1: the late fifteenth century, they saw opportunity. Portuguese explorers have
[5:55] Speaker 1: been gradually moving down the western coast of Africa for decades,
[5:58] Speaker 1: hoping to find new trade routes and access to wealth
[6:00] Speaker 1: without relying on Arab and North African middlemen. They also
[6:04] Speaker 1: helped to spread Christianity and find allies who might help
[6:06] Speaker 1: extend Portuguese power, but what they really wanted more than
[6:09] Speaker 1: anything was gold and ivory. Assa Monson just so happened
[6:13] Speaker 1: to have gold in abundance. The gold trade was already
[6:17] Speaker 1: thriving there before the Portuguese arrived, as African merchants, miners,
[6:20] Speaker 1: and traders had long been moving gold through regional and
[6:22] Speaker 1: long distance networks. If the Portuguese could insert themselves into it,
[6:26] Speaker 1: and might establish a permanent footh on the coast, thereby
[6:29] Speaker 1: controlling access to one of the richest sources of gold
[6:32] Speaker 1: then known to Europe. The Portuguese soon began calling the
[6:35] Speaker 1: town Amina or the Mine, because of the wealth they
[6:37] Speaker 1: associated with the area, so eventually Asa Monson became known
[6:41] Speaker 1: as Elmina. Even at the beginning of their presence in Ghana,
[6:45] Speaker 1: the Portuguese had no intention of making their state temporary.
[6:48] Speaker 1: In fourteen eighty one, King John the Second of Portugal
[6:50] Speaker 1: ordered a fortress be built at Elmina. The following year,
[6:54] Speaker 1: a fleet arrived from Portugal carrying shipsloaded with men, weapons, provisions,
[6:57] Speaker 1: and prefit of building materials. The expedition also brought in
[7:01] Speaker 1: artisans who could assemble the fort quickly, but it also
[7:03] Speaker 1: included hundreds of armed men should the locals show any
[7:06] Speaker 1: discontent with the Portuguese presence for the small coastal settlement
[7:11] Speaker 1: already there. The scale of the arrival served its purpose,
[7:14] Speaker 1: as it was both staggering and intimidating. The Portuguese then
[7:17] Speaker 1: negotiated with the local chief, Quaman Onsaw, presenting the fort
[7:21] Speaker 1: as a source of protection and mutual benefit. Gifts were
[7:24] Speaker 1: offered and promises were made, and the Portuguese described the
[7:27] Speaker 1: power of King John the Second and the advantages of
[7:29] Speaker 1: friendship with him. But the chief was wary, and for
[7:32] Speaker 1: good reason. The building of a fortress wasn't something you
[7:34] Speaker 1: could just erase if he turned out not to like it.
[7:37] Speaker 1: Its presence would be permanent, as with its rules, embedding
[7:39] Speaker 1: a foreign power directly into the town, regardless of any
[7:43] Speaker 1: reluctance on the part of Kuaman. Note the Portuguese would
[7:45] Speaker 1: not remain patient. Their plans were already in motion. As
[7:49] Speaker 1: you might have guessed, the construction of the castle brought
[7:51] Speaker 1: conflict almost immediately. The Portuguese wanted the fort in the
[7:54] Speaker 1: most defensible position possible, but that meant disrupting the existing settlements.
[7:59] Speaker 1: Homes would have to be removed, and the land would
[8:01] Speaker 1: have to be taken in order for it to be
[8:02] Speaker 1: built where they wanted it. A nearby rock that local
[8:05] Speaker 1: people regarded as spiritually significant even became part of the
[8:08] Speaker 1: construction plan as the Portuguese began using it for building materials.
[8:12] Speaker 1: They tried to smooth the process with more gifts, but
[8:14] Speaker 1: the damage began before those gestures could even be presented
[8:18] Speaker 1: to the citizens being displaced. Everything was being taken from
[8:21] Speaker 1: them with no immediate compensation, so resistance followed and violence
[8:24] Speaker 1: broke out. Several Portuguese men were killed in skirmishes, but
[8:27] Speaker 1: the Europeans ended up getting the upper hand when they
[8:30] Speaker 1: started burning local homes as the work in the fort continued.
[8:33] Speaker 1: Soon enough, stone by stone, the building rows marked in
[8:36] Speaker 1: the beginning of a new order on that stretched the coast.
[8:40] Speaker 1: Inside its walls, European authority would be protected by cannons
[8:43] Speaker 1: and soldiers, while outside the African communities would have to
[8:46] Speaker 1: adapt to a new power. Once completed, Elmina Castle, which
[8:50] Speaker 1: is also known as Fort Saint George, became one of
[8:52] Speaker 1: the most important European structures in West Africa. Over time,
[8:56] Speaker 1: Almina grew around the fort and its presence changed not
[8:58] Speaker 1: only the town, but almost relationships among communities around it.
[9:02] Speaker 1: Before time, gold remained at the center of Elmina's importance,
[9:05] Speaker 1: since the Portuguese wanted access to the metal that had
[9:07] Speaker 1: drawn them there in the first place, But the Atlantic
[9:10] Speaker 1: world was changing that building rays to guard the gold
[9:12] Speaker 1: trade would become a prison for human beings. Once that
[9:16] Speaker 1: changed to cold, the castle's most important spaces were no
[9:19] Speaker 1: longer the rooms where merchants counted goods or governors looked
[9:21] Speaker 1: out over the sea. They were instead the rooms below,
[9:24] Speaker 1: where men and women were crowded into darkness by the
[9:27] Speaker 1: hundreds and held there until ships were ready for them.
[9:31] Speaker 1: As the hunger for labour across the Atlantic grew and
[9:33] Speaker 1: European colonies expanded. In the Americas, plantations needed more workers
[9:37] Speaker 1: than European powers were willing or able to supply from
[9:40] Speaker 1: their own populations. Sugar, tobacco, cotton, and other plantation commodities
[9:45] Speaker 1: depended increasingly unforced labor, which would eventually reshape the purpose
[9:48] Speaker 1: of coastal forts like Elmina Castle. Soon it became part
[9:52] Speaker 1: of a much larger system of captivity, and those who
[9:55] Speaker 1: arrived in Elmina didn't usually begin their suffering there, many
[9:58] Speaker 1: had already been torn from them their homes far from
[10:00] Speaker 1: the coast, having been captured during wars or raids, or
[10:03] Speaker 1: sold through networks that connected inland regions to coastal traders.
[10:07] Speaker 1: By the time they reached Almina Castle, they had often
[10:10] Speaker 1: already endured exhaustion, hunger, and forced marches that wore them
[10:13] Speaker 1: down and made them more manageable. Once there, people were
[10:16] Speaker 1: brought to the castle, separated from family members, crowded into
[10:19] Speaker 1: underground rooms, and held there until traders were ready to
[10:22] Speaker 1: move them out. The Portuguese had never built Elmina Castle
[10:25] Speaker 1: as a dungeon, but over time the trade became more
[10:28] Speaker 1: central to activity along the coast than gold itself. By
[10:31] Speaker 1: the seventeenth century, the industry had become a dominant force
[10:34] Speaker 1: in West African commerce, thereby forever changing Amina's role. Then,
[10:39] Speaker 1: in sixteen thirty seven, after decades of attempts, the Dutch
[10:42] Speaker 1: finally seized the castle from the Portuguese. Unfortunately, under Dutch authority,
[10:46] Speaker 1: Amina became the capital of the Dutch gold coast, and
[10:49] Speaker 1: it remained deeply tied to the Atlantic slave trade. And
[10:51] Speaker 1: it worked like this. European goods came to the West
[10:54] Speaker 1: African coast. Africans were forced onto ships bound for the Americas,
[10:58] Speaker 1: and plantation products in raw materia returned to Europe. This
[11:01] Speaker 1: system connected Europe, Africa and the Americas, but inside Almina
[11:05] Speaker 1: Castle it could only be described as complete and total suffering,
[11:09] Speaker 1: and all of this was made worse by the stark
[11:10] Speaker 1: contrast with the world above the castles. Above ground rooms
[11:14] Speaker 1: continued to serve the needs of the men who oversaw
[11:16] Speaker 1: and guarded it. Europeans literally lived there with their families
[11:20] Speaker 1: and worshiped together. Then just one level below that were
[11:22] Speaker 1: the dungeons that served an entirely different purpose, and the
[11:26] Speaker 1: numbers attached to Almina Castle are difficult to grasp. The
[11:29] Speaker 1: castle could hold large numbers of captives at a time,
[11:31] Speaker 1: and over the centuries, many thousands passed through its rooms
[11:34] Speaker 1: and corridors. By the eighteenth century, sources described tens of
[11:39] Speaker 1: thousands of people passing through its seaward exit in a
[11:41] Speaker 1: single year. And again, there were two entirely separate worlds
[11:45] Speaker 1: at work inside the castle that existed inches apart from
[11:47] Speaker 1: one another. Above ground, soldiers lived and worked, merchants conducted business,
[11:52] Speaker 1: and governors administered trade, missionaries and chaplains brought Christianity into
[11:56] Speaker 1: the same structure where human beings were being bought and
[11:59] Speaker 1: confined before being unceremoniously shipped away. There were suites where
[12:03] Speaker 1: the Europeans slept, and lavish halls where they ate together,
[12:05] Speaker 1: And just below all these things was a world of
[12:07] Speaker 1: complete opposites. The captives held at the castle were confined
[12:11] Speaker 1: beneath and within the exact same complex where opulence and
[12:15] Speaker 1: wealth were being celebrated above ground. In fact, the exact
[12:18] Speaker 1: same chapel where prayer and worship were held, set directly
[12:20] Speaker 1: above a place of starvation and suffering, holding men who
[12:23] Speaker 1: claimed to be Christians above and captives treated as cargo below.
[12:27] Speaker 1: All the while the men who operated Almina Castle did
[12:29] Speaker 1: not see themselves as villains. Prayers could be said inside
[12:32] Speaker 1: walls where people are locked into darkness, and religious language
[12:35] Speaker 1: could be carved into the stone of the same complex
[12:37] Speaker 1: where families were being separated. It's difficult to imagine a
[12:41] Speaker 1: clear image of moral blindness than when men went upstairs
[12:43] Speaker 1: to worship while other human beings suffered below them. And
[12:47] Speaker 1: Almina Castle's upper world was not only hypocritical in a
[12:50] Speaker 1: religious sense, It also served a practical purpose. From above,
[12:54] Speaker 1: the Dutch could watch over the captives and send orders
[12:56] Speaker 1: down below. They could decide when captives would eat or
[12:59] Speaker 1: when they would be moved, moved, punished, or forced toward
[13:01] Speaker 1: a waiting ships. For female captives in particular, that vertical
[13:05] Speaker 1: arrangement became even more dangerous. Accounts of Elmina Castle repeatedly
[13:10] Speaker 1: described the governor's access to captive women. A staircase led
[13:14] Speaker 1: directly from the governor's quarters to the women's dungeon, and
[13:17] Speaker 1: their confinement was about much more than waiting for ships.
[13:20] Speaker 1: Every night, the governor would take to his balcony and
[13:22] Speaker 1: look down into the dungeon to make selections for who
[13:25] Speaker 1: would spend the night with him. Those chosen would then
[13:27] Speaker 1: be washed and shaved in preparation for the night with
[13:29] Speaker 1: the governor. Any woman who did resist or defy being
[13:32] Speaker 1: chosen was punished severely, often chained up without clothing outside
[13:36] Speaker 1: the castle for at least twenty four hours there that
[13:39] Speaker 1: endure blazing sun, insect stings, and public humiliation. In other cases,
[13:44] Speaker 1: defiant women were made to wear a cannonball change their leg. Men, meanwhile,
[13:49] Speaker 1: were punished with more finality those who resisted fought back
[13:52] Speaker 1: were attempted to escape at examples made out of them.
[13:55] Speaker 1: A small room at Elmina Castle is marked with a
[13:57] Speaker 1: skull and crossbones and is remembered as the Deaf, where
[14:00] Speaker 1: rebellious male captives could be shut away without food or
[14:03] Speaker 1: water and denied both until they inevitably died. Male or female. However,
[14:08] Speaker 1: the dungeons were designed to reduce people into something less
[14:10] Speaker 1: than human. The conditions inside each dungeon were intentionally brutal.
[14:15] Speaker 1: As mentioned, they were cramped and poorly ventilated, and some
[14:17] Speaker 1: spaces only had small openings for air and light. Captives
[14:21] Speaker 1: were packed together numbers far beyond what any human being
[14:23] Speaker 1: could endure in such a confined space with any sense
[14:26] Speaker 1: of dignity. In some accounts, individual cells held as many
[14:29] Speaker 1: as two hundred people at once. There was also nothing
[14:33] Speaker 1: resembling proper sanitation, and this led to possibly the most
[14:36] Speaker 1: disturbing part of it all. Captives had to relieve themselves
[14:39] Speaker 1: where they were being held, meaning they lived and slept
[14:42] Speaker 1: on floors where other people urinated, defecated, vomited blood, gave birth, menstruated,
[14:47] Speaker 1: and died. Over time, the dungeon floors themselves were said
[14:51] Speaker 1: to have literally absorbed the very history of that confinement.
[14:54] Speaker 1: Modern visitors are told that these layers literally raised the
[14:57] Speaker 1: floor above its original level. It's difficult to mention these
[15:01] Speaker 1: details without making them feel like a grotesque description for
[15:04] Speaker 1: its own sake, but at Elmina Castle, the filth was
[15:06] Speaker 1: central to the experience, and the food situation was almost
[15:10] Speaker 1: no better beyond the poor quality it would be passed
[15:13] Speaker 1: or thrown into the dungeons. Some captives had to separate
[15:16] Speaker 1: their dinners from piles on the ground before they could
[15:18] Speaker 1: consume them, and all of this served an important purpose
[15:21] Speaker 1: to the Dutch. A starving person was the easier to control,
[15:24] Speaker 1: and it made escape less likely too. Those who held
[15:27] Speaker 1: captives at Almina understood that people who were stronger might fight,
[15:30] Speaker 1: so captives were given just enough, but not enough to
[15:33] Speaker 1: remain physically capable. Some accounts even tell of captives who
[15:37] Speaker 1: simply stopped eating because the reality of the situation they faced.
[15:40] Speaker 1: As you can probably infer from this set of conditions,
[15:42] Speaker 1: disease was a constant problem as well. Malaria, yellow fever,
[15:46] Speaker 1: and other infections traveled easily. From this death became an
[15:50] Speaker 1: everty part of the castle's routine, and when captives died,
[15:52] Speaker 1: they were simply removed the dungeons and tossed into the sea.
[15:55] Speaker 1: There was no burial with morning family members present, or
[15:58] Speaker 1: return home to a permanent resting place. And yet, despite
[16:01] Speaker 1: the horrific conditions they were forced to live in, not
[16:03] Speaker 1: everyone died there. Some survived the castle's dungeon and were
[16:06] Speaker 1: left for an indeterminate amount of time before being loaded
[16:09] Speaker 1: onto a crowded hip for a long journey across the Atlantic.
[16:13] Speaker 1: And for those individuals, Elmina Castle still had one final
[16:16] Speaker 1: passage that today is known as the Door of No Return,
[16:19] Speaker 1: and the name truly captures what the exit came to represent.
[16:23] Speaker 1: Once captives were forced through it, they were not expected
[16:25] Speaker 1: to ever return to their homeland. It was the end
[16:28] Speaker 1: of the castle's internal workings and the beginning of another
[16:31] Speaker 1: whr entirely to reach it. Captives move from the dungeons
[16:34] Speaker 1: into narrow dim quarters that led toward the seaward side
[16:37] Speaker 1: of the fortress. Even today, those who visit the castle
[16:40] Speaker 1: and walked the route often experienced the journey as both
[16:43] Speaker 1: physically tight and emotionally heavy. For those who lived it, however,
[16:47] Speaker 1: those final movements inside Elmina Castle must have been filled
[16:50] Speaker 1: with absolute dread. Beyond the door of no return was
[16:53] Speaker 1: the ocean and the ships that would take them far
[16:55] Speaker 1: away from home. In some accounts, men and women who
[16:58] Speaker 1: had been separated inside the castle were brought together again
[17:00] Speaker 1: near the exit, but this was yet another act of cruelty,
[17:03] Speaker 1: not one of mercy. A husband might see his wife
[17:06] Speaker 1: after months of not knowing whether she was alive or not.
[17:09] Speaker 1: A mother might see a son, or siblings might be
[17:11] Speaker 1: briefly united, only to be torn apart once again as
[17:13] Speaker 1: they were loaded onto ships. In a way, the door
[17:17] Speaker 1: of no return became symbolic as a transition point between
[17:19] Speaker 1: the lives they once knew and whatever wined them on
[17:21] Speaker 1: the other side of the ocean. Today, Elmina Castle still
[17:25] Speaker 1: stands above the coast. It outlived the Portuguese who built it,
[17:29] Speaker 1: the Dutch who seized it, and the British who later
[17:31] Speaker 1: took control of it. The trade at Elmina Castle did
[17:34] Speaker 1: eventually end, but only after centuries of human beings had
[17:37] Speaker 1: already been forced through the dungeons. Under Dutch control, the
[17:40] Speaker 1: atrocities committed their continued until eighteen fourteen, when the Dutch
[17:44] Speaker 1: abolished their participation in the slave trade. By then, though,
[17:47] Speaker 1: Elmina had already become one of the most infamous holding
[17:49] Speaker 1: sites on the West African coast. The exact number of
[17:53] Speaker 1: captives who passed through the castle's dungeons and the door
[17:55] Speaker 1: of no return can never be known with any certainty,
[17:57] Speaker 1: but estimates suggest that it was as many as thirty
[18:00] Speaker 1: thousand per year, and horrifyingly, they were just part of
[18:04] Speaker 1: a much larger catastphe in which millions of Africans were
[18:06] Speaker 1: shipped from coastal forts and trading posts. Elmina Castle may
[18:10] Speaker 1: have been one of the most notorious among them, but
[18:11] Speaker 1: it was just one of forty such trading posts along
[18:14] Speaker 1: the Ganaean coast that held people against their will before
[18:17] Speaker 1: the fateful voyage to the other side of the Atlantic.
[18:20] Speaker 1: Those who visit the castle in modern times describe a
[18:23] Speaker 1: profound experience they will never forget, since the floors of
[18:26] Speaker 1: the dungeon are still original, and the exact same on
[18:28] Speaker 1: which captives slept lived to cape birth and illumined waste on.
[18:32] Speaker 1: The lingering smell of those rooms has yet to dissipate.
[18:35] Speaker 1: It's supposedly almost enough to knock you off your feet
[18:37] Speaker 1: and it's not uncommon for those on guided tours to
[18:39] Speaker 1: vomit one side. The dungeon spaces more than anything, though
[18:43] Speaker 1: tour guides describe visitors breaking down into uncontrollable sobs as
[18:46] Speaker 1: they bear witness to a place where so much human
[18:48] Speaker 1: suffering occurred. Even today, Elmina Castle remains a study in contrasts.
[18:53] Speaker 1: Above ground, it's still as beautiful as it ever was.
[18:55] Speaker 1: Inside out, the surrounding village still fishes the waters, and
[18:59] Speaker 1: merchants still sell their handmade goods while the castle looms
[19:02] Speaker 1: high above them. Below ground, the stones that make up
[19:05] Speaker 1: the dungeon hold the memories, experiences, and even the sense
[19:08] Speaker 1: of the unspeakable horse that occurred there over the course
[19:10] Speaker 1: of hundreds of years, and of all the European buildings
[19:13] Speaker 1: constructed south of the Sahara, Amina Castle is still the
[19:16] Speaker 1: oldest in existence.

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