Transcript

Impact of the Slave Trade Through a

Ghanaian Lens
The Atlantic slave trade removed 12.5 million people from Africa and
probably resulted in the death of millions more. This violence and forced
migration caused long-term suffering at the individual and societal levels.
Three Ghanaian scholars give us a sense of its impact on the coast, the
interior, and the far north of this region.
Transcript
Impact of the Slave Trade Through a Ghanaian Lens

Timing and description Text

00:01 My name is Trevor Getz and I’m a professor of African history at San Francisco
State University. I’m here at Cape Coast Castle in Ghana in West Africa. You know,
Trevor Getz, PhD, stands 25 years ago, when I first became interested in African history, my high school
next to a canon at Cape world history text book had very little to say about Ghana. It was as if there was no
Coast Castle information about the place. But in fact we know an awful lot about this country,
and it’s Ghanaian historians who help us to understand it and its place in world
history.

I’m here to talk to some of those historians about the Atlantic slaving system. I
want to understand what Ghana was like before the Atlantic slave trade and how
the Atlantic slave trade, which ripped millions of people from their homes and left
devastation in its wake, changed this country and the lasting legacy that it has.

01:00 So, I’m here with Ato Ashun, the regional director for the Ghana Museums and
Monuments Board. - Yeah. - And, where are we?
Getz and Ashun sit across
from one another in ASHUN: Currently, you are at Cape Coast Castle.
conversation;
Video footage shows a GETZ: Before Europeans arrived in this region, in general, what kind of political
long line of canons, and structures were there?
the surrounding sea

01:35 ASHUN: Well, you know, before they came, we have the chiefs, working together
with the elders of states. They would be today like the president and the cabinet
Abusua: extended family ministers, running the system. Then we had the heads of the various family
units within a state units. We call them “abusua.” They are those together with the chiefs running the
Image: a painting of a political system of the various places.
Ghanaian meeting
GETZ: So you have an executive, the chiefs, and then you have a legislative if you
will, which is the elders.

- Of course.

GETZ: What was the economic system like here? Were people trading, was there
commerce, were people growing things, was there industry?

ASHUN: In fact, we we would have the, the farming, growing things. We would
have the commerce. And we had fishing, also.

02:12 GETZ: So, a pretty sophisticated commercial system, stable states with an
executive, and a legislative branch. And then we have the arrival of Europeans and
Text: Portuguese ship we have the Atlantic slave trade.
captains introduced the
Atlantic slave trade to When did the Atlantic slave trade begin here?
Ghana in the 15th century.
Image: drawing of several ASHUN: You will talk about the fact that when the Portuguese came over here,
ships approaching a town they came along with it. But then, when you talk of the Cape Coast Castle, you talk
about when the English took over, actually. So that was round about 1660, ‘65,
thereabout.

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02:38
Text: in the 16th century,
high demand for enslaved
workers on Caribbean GETZ: At that point, is it involved in the slave trade?
sugar plantations ASHUN: Oh, yes, at that time, they had already started.
brought British slavers
to the region in large
numbers. They made their
headquarters at cape coast
castle.
Image: A map of the
region shows all of the GETZ: And so what would happen when British and other European ships come up
towns along Cape Coast here to purchase people?

Drawing of a slaver ASHUN: Two different occasions would happen. When the merchants would come
“inspecting” a slave to buy, and when the castle would supply their colonies.

GETZ: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Okay, so there were actually dungeons built into this
place right from the beginning?

03:08 ASHUN: Absolutely, we have two separate dungeons. We have the male’s dungeon
and the female’s dungeons. We... total we could talk about 1,300 the minimum.
Video footage shows the
two separate dungeons. - People? - People. - At one time?
Each room in the dungeon
is small, dark, and made - At one time. Yes, and in the male’s dungeons, we have five compartments making
of brick. up the whole dungeon. And every compartment had 200 people at a time.

It is sad to see the dungeon because, you know, unlike other places where they
were given containers where they could defecate into them, here in Cape Coast
Castle, they create a sort of canals in the dungeon that they could do it into them.
And whenever it rained, the rain would wash these away.

Text: Conditions were GETZ: Yeah, I mean, these must be terrible, terrible conditions, unimaginable.
so bad that many
captives died before even ASHUN: Unimaginable.
embarking on a ship

03:50 GETZ: But here’s what really shocks me. - Yeah. - We are sitting above the
dungeons, essentially. The British officers were living above this all the time. Can
Footage of the castle, you... I mean, it’s unimaginable. So for it to be worth it, it must have made a lot of
showing the living money for them? - Of course. - Yeah - Of course. This was very profitable for the
quarters of the British European companies involved and such. - Mm-hmm.
officers, which were
directly above the GETZ: How did the Atlantic slave trade transform the economic system here?
dungeons.
ASHUN: Well, so, now human beings have become commodities. - Mm-hmm.
ASHUN: So, those who would dig for gold will now go into capturing people.
Those who would spend time farming are being captured. So, it changed the whole
dynamics. We would start experiencing farming from this end because people will
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start moving deep into the forest, running away from the radar of these wicked
people. Yes, economics changed.

04:44 GETZ: Wow, so, okay, so it sounds like three things you’re saying... is first of
all, people are being taken away, so they don’t work. Second, people who would
Text: Economic impact: normally be working on productive things like digging for gold or growing things
- Kidnapping and removal are turning to slave trading because they have to in order to survive. - Right. - And,
of laborers thirdly, people can’t live where they would normally live, they have to go into the
- Decrease of productive forest.
activities
- People cannot live near ASHUN: Of course. They have to keep moving.
their fields or mines
GETZ: This is a huge transformation.

ASHUN: Yes. So, leave everything you’ve done behind Because you don’t want to
be captured.

05:13
Dr. Akosua Perbi, PhD, AKOSUA PERBI: It was really a time of insecurity. People have to move with
University of Ghana, is security guards and so because you dare not move alone. You’d always go in
one of the world’s leading bands. Because you were not sure what would happen on the way. It also was
authorities on the Atlantic affected the legal system in terms of the court system. Because where there were
slave trade fines for various offenses, some case would decide that no, we are not going to
ask you to pay any fine. Rather go and become a slave somewhere.

I heard the case of the king of Komenda in the 1700s, who... the brother did
Drawing of a woman something he didn’t like. And instead of asking the brother pay a fine, he asked the
with her baby on her back brother to be enslaved across the Atlantic. Not only the brother, but the wife and
being kidnapped; she is the children as well, you know. And then also, in some areas, like the Akwamu
lead on a rope area, people resorted to kidnapping a lot. (speaking local language) And that also
affected the traditional system. Because kidnapping was not a way of life in Ghana.

06:16
Text: By the early 18th
century, the Atlantic Slave
Trade had begun to impact
the “Middle Belt” of Ghana, GETZ: So I’ve been talking to people mostly along the coast about slavery and the
including the Kingdom of Atlantic slaving system, and I’m very interested to get a view from further in the
Asante interior, from this region, which you are an expert in and further to the north.
Image: the Map expands
from the coast, showing
the middle belt and Asante

06:44 WILHELMINA DONKOH: Well, it affected the Middle Belt directly and indirectly.
Directly in the sense that they wanted European goods such as guns, gunpowder,
Dr. Wilhelmina Donkoh, fabrics, and so on. And they had to deliver and retain whatever the Europeans
PhD, Kwame Nkrumah wanted at a particular time. So, initially, it was mainly gold and elephant tusk or
University of Science and ivory. And they were so positioned that they could deliver these commodities.
Technology, is

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an expert on the impact And then, over time, as the transatlantic slave trade intensified and the
of the slave trade in this commodities that were required in exchange for European goods, desired by the
region. Asante and people in the Middle Belt, generally was human beings. Because of
the plantation agriculture that was going on in the New World, most of the slaves
that were taken out of Asante, for example, did not necessarily originate from this
region. They had to look up north for them.

08:13
Text: By the early 19th
century, most enslaved
people purchased at Cape GETZ: What was the impact of the Atlantic slave trade in the north?
Coast Castle were from WILHELMINA DONKOH: Uh, to the north I would say it was more devastating in
Northern Ghana, captured the sense that, if you remember, I said most of the slaves that were sent from
in wars, and taken to the the Middle Belt did not originate from here. They came from the north either as
coast to meet growing captives or they were brought in as tribute because parts of the north had been
European demands for conquered by Asante, and as subjects of Asante, they had to pay homage and
enslaved laborers tribute to Asante. And this caused people in the north to war amongst themselves.
And also some of them found the opportunity to trade. So if they were able to
attack weaker neighbors, they would be able to acquire slaves, sell off, and get
some money out of that.

09:26 GETZ: What do you think was the impact on that region of the removal of so many
hundreds of thousands or even millions of people?

WILHELMINA DONKOH: First of all, I will say insecurity, because one was not too
certain when there would be a raid. And there are so many stories about villages
that were attacked, raided, and people taken away. And though some of them who
Drawing of a village being found their way to the south and became integrated in southern societies, you
attacked know, tell of how they came to be in the south. So you can tell from them that
there was a lot of insecurity. And definitely, if people are worried, trying to protect
themselves, it’s going to also hinder their major source of economic activity, which
was agriculture. So, I’ll say that in the north it must have had more devastating
effect.

10:33 GETZ: What do you think have been the long-term impacts of the Atlantic slave
trade on Ghanaian society?

WILHELMINA DONKOH: Now people hedge about talking about their roles in the
transatlantic slave trade. It takes a lot of effort before people will actually open up
to talk about it, talking to people who have lost family. You know, very often we
just think about those who were sent away. But we do not think about those who
were left behind. Because those who were sent out belonged to families. They had
parents, they had siblings, some of them had children, and so on. And there are
memories of those who lost loved ones to the trade. So that is very often hidden, it
doesn’t come out in the open.

GETZ: So we’re actually talking about multi-generational trauma.

Yes. Yes. - Yeah, incredible. - Yes.

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11:49 ASHUN: Let me make it very simple. One simple thing it did was to take away our
independence and bring in dependence. So that, you know, we are digging for gold
Getz and Ashun in ourselves, now when we get the gold, we have to bring you the gold dust, you
conversation at the Castle bring us the trinkets. Now we’re not able to have the opportunity to develop the
again system we’re already having.

GETZ: Let me ask you, how did you first learn about the impact of the Atlantic
slave trade here?

ASHUN: In my growing stages, I never had the opportunity to visit the dungeons... -
Video footage of a Mm-hmm. - ...that much. I could see the castle pass by. But when I grew up a little
compartment in a dungeon bit, that was when I entered for the first time. And I had then grown, so I was like...
that was why I said to you that I was sitting in the dungeons crying every morning
for about a week or two, because, one, I was surprised that it did happen. Two, I
was again surprised that even though I was born around the castle, never had the
opportunity to, to visit it. So, then it was very difficult to take.

12:51 GETZ: So, can you tell me what the Door of No Return is?

ASHUN: You know, the very last point the African exited from the castles to the
We follow a tunnel in the ships to be taken away, that very last point of the exit, is what is termed “Door of
castle to a door at the very No Return.” Because knowing that you will never come back in to Africa again.
end
What do you think about the fact that tourists come here to see this place that is
really a place of enormous suffering?

ASHUN: Yeah. I think that those who are coming are here to learn so that we don’t
repeat the same mistakes. So it doesn’t serve just as a tourist center, but a kind of
educational center, sort of. So that everybody will learn from it and will make the
world a better place than it is today.

13:35 GETZ: Between about the 1440s and the 1880s, over a million Ghanaians were
ripped from their homes and kidnapped into the Atlantic slave trade. Multiply that
by more than ten to understand the scale over the entire continent of Africa.

We know that this must have had a deep and dramatic impact on Ghanaian society.
We can think about the psychological trauma it must have caused, the social
breakdowns, the economic dislocation, and the political decline. But we don’t really
know about the impact of the Atlantic slave trade. Enslaved people don’t leave
behind a lot of records and a lot of people today in different parts of the world
don’t want to talk about that era. As a result, when we get Ghanaian historians
together, we see some disagreement over the precise details of the Atlantic slave
trade and its impact. But we also see a broad recognition that results were deep
and they were lasting, that they were widespread and that they still haven’t gone
away today, and that we need to understand the scale of the impact of the slave
trade in Africa if we are to understand the patterns of world history themselves.