The
slave dungeon at the Ghana's Cape Coast Castle: President
Obama
has requested a tour of the site, that witnessed so many
unspeakable
horrors during the years of the slave trade.
My Joy,
Ghana
In Ghana, Obama 'Will Cry' for Africa
"The
dungeons where the slaves were kept and the 'journey-of-no-return' that they were
forced to experience were more than hell. Despite the scrubbing and use of
detergents, the stench of dead bodies, blood stains and human excreta remain … When
President Obama sees these things he will definitely 'cry,' and this must be
translated into a 'Marshall Plan for Africa."
An African slave as dipicted in the book 'Africa and its Explorations as Told by its Explorers,' by Mungo Park, 1907. The author hopes that after President Obama visits Ghana's Cape Coast Castle, one of the most notorious points of emarkation for African slaves, he will be more disposed to a 'Marshall Plan for Africa' as a form of compensation for slavery and colonialism.
One of the greatest
historical events ever to occur in Ghana will be the august visit of U.S.
President Barrack Obama. On the airwaves and the newspapers, one can already discern
the warm and rousing welcome that awaits and that will reflect legendary
Ghanaian hospitality.
The visit means so much to
Ghanaians and the whole of Africa - and one cannot understate the social and economic
benefits that at the same time, will serve one of the purposes for which
America stands.
President Obama will not be
the first American leader to visit Ghana. President William Jefferson Clinton
visited in March 1998, and described the crowd that welcomed him in Accra as
the largest he had seen in his entire political career.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Clinton's successor, President
George W. Bush, visited Ghana in February 2008 and has never regretted setting
foot on Ghanaian soil. But President Obama's visit portends to be more
hilarious and significant, since as the first Black American President, he has
chosen Ghana as his first official destination on the continent of Africa.
Even more than when he was candidate
on campaign, Obama fever has caught on with Ghanaians, with euphoria and jingles
conquering the airwaves.
Many glamorous events are planned
during his visit. One of the most significant will be a visit to the Cape Coast Castle, the
main slave trading fort back when Ghana was a British colony. According to Information
Minister Mrs. Zita Okaikoi, it was President Obama who sought to visit the Cape
Coast Castle - and the government of Ghana of course will honor his request.
It speaks volumes for an
American President to specifically choose to visit the Cape Coast Castle, where
hundreds of thousands of slaves were transported to the New World.
The repercussions that
followed America's discovery by Amerigo Vespucci
turned the fortunes of America and Africa. The Black man was considered hardy
and able to withstand the vagaries of American weather to work on plantations -
tobacco, tea, maize and other crops - to feed Europe and America.
Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454-February
22, 1512) was an Italian explorer, navigator and cartographer. The American continent
derives its name from the feminized Latin version of his first name.
The slave trade demonstrated man's
inhumanity to man, leading to the depopulation of Africa and population of America,
increasing agricultural production there through the slave labor that eventually
facilitated industrialization in the country.
More than this article can
portray, President Obama himself knows the history, so one needn't mention
that sordid past, as it could be considered unpleasant to such
an august visitor. Americans are probably more informed about the Cape Coast
Castle than many Ghanaians. Nevertheless, the slave trade remains indelibly imprinted
within the minds of Africa's people.
Clearly,
the dungeons where the slaves were kept and the "journey-of-no-return"
that they were forced to experience were more than hell. Despite the scrubbing
and use of detergents, the stench of dead bodies, blood stains and human
excreta still remain. Again, one can see the finger and toe marks on the walls where
slaves in chains struggled to breathe. It was a horror that history cannot
erase. But all the same - Blacks and Whites have managed to coexist peacefully
as creatures of God.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Every year, tourists, particularly
African-Americans who attend the Pan
African Festival in Ghana, break down in tears when they come to understand
the conditions that fellow human beings went through in the process of
transporting them from the West coast of Africa across the Atlantic to America
and other parts of the world.
On one occasion after
Professor Kofi Anyidoho, a poet and a former lecturer at the University of
Ghana, Legon, had conducted some tourists through the dungeons, many broke down
in tears. One of them said: "These are things we read about in books back
in the United States and try to brush aside, but one cannot fail to appreciate
what our forefathers went through."
When President Obama sees these
things he will definitely "cry," and this must be translated into a "Marshall
Plan for Africa" to salvage her from the dependency that arose out of the
slave trade, colonialism and neo-colonialism.
