Cape Coast
3rd June 2006
Volunteering is also about adventuring and seeing the country that you are
in. I went on so many trips while in the Philippines. They
were all fantastic. My first such adventure in Africa saw me
heading to Cape Coast.
Cape Coast is a seaside town famous for its castles, slave trade and
canopy walks.
Wheeling and Dealing
Something like twenty people were coming along for the trip.
People who had been in Ghana for a while thought it would be best if we
hired a tro-tro. A tro-tro is any form of public transport that
isn't a taxi or a bus. More often than not it is a converted van.
I was quite poor at haggling in the Philippines, but one of the things I
liked was that when a deal was made, it was stuck to. A deal is a
deal. Not so in Ghana.
One volunteer managed to negotiate a deal of 350,000 cedi ($NZ60.33) for a good
quality tro-tro to take us to Cape Coast. The owner of the tro-tro
then
tried to move us to a different far crappier tro-tro. Our negotiators
insisted that the deal was for the good tro-tro. If not that, then we
would pay 320,000 cedi ($NZ55.16) for the crap tro-tro. Some back and forth ensued
before the ultimatum was issued. "320,00 for the crap tro-tro. Yes or no?". The owner said no and we left the
tro-tro.
We ended up having to back track a bit towards Accra before heading
back towards Cape Coast.
It was at this point that my camera was stolen. We were
transferring between tro-tros and (I think) I left it on the dashboard
of the first tro-tro. It must of been all of thirty seconds before
I realized what I had done, but by then it was too late.
Meh.
The Journey
The trip to Cape Coast took about 3 hours. I enjoyed the
opportunity to see a bit more of Ghana, as opposed to the mini-Liberia
I've been living in.
The roads started out okay, but soon
degenerated into a pot-holed mess. A South African guy that I met
at the Global Night Commute
told me that you could always spot a drunk driver in Africa because he
was the one driving in a straight line. All the sober
drivers would be swerving wildly to avoid the pot holes...
Much like the Philippines, people are always
trying to sell stuff to you when your car pauses somewhere. Handkerchiefs,
belts, ice-blocks, water and plantain (similar to a banana) were all trying to be peddled.
One of the most disturbing thing I saw was a
guy lying on the side of the road in the baking heat. There were
no houses nearby so he was obviously on his own. I was sitting in
the front of the tro-tro with another person and we both looked at each
other not quite knowing what to make of the situation.
Was the guy dead? Dunno.
Was he in trouble? Probably.
Why didn't I insist the tro-tro driver stop
so that we could help the guy?
Hmmm. A hard question to answer.
I think my first thought was that is was some sort of cultural no-no to pull over to
the side of the road to help someone. Sounds kinda lame now that I
think about it. It might of been some sort of elaborate trap to
steal a car from a weary - but helpful - traveler. It's time like
these that I feel like such a stoopid naïve whiteman.
Sammos
We finally made it to Cape Coast and
Sammos - out budget accommodation for the weekend.
The rooms themselves at Sammos were quite
nice. They had taps and showers, but no actual running water!
Some people were understandably annoyed by this. It didn't really
worry me too much. I just chalked it up to another experience in a
third world country.
We had our dinner on the roof of Sammos.
I felt quite sorry for the one waiter and chef that was on duty.
Having twenty hungry people turning up on your doorstep and expecting to
be fed can't be easy. Some people had to wait two hours for their
meals. Carrie heroically jumped up and lent the chef a hand.
During the meal I met a Ghanaian guy called
David - or King David as he liked to call himself. He was a cool
guy. He was very proud to show me his foreign coin
selection. I gave him an Australian 50 cent piece that I had left
over from my stop over in Melbourne.
He was also trying to open a
store "someday" that would sell t-shirts that were designed by
him. He seemed like a good guy so I purchased one for him on the
condition that he would add a www.crazymalc.co.nz
onto the back. Some of the other volunteers liked the idea and got
t-shirts of their own.
The shirt was a big hit. I got many cheers from Ghanaian
people as I wandered around Cape Coast.
The t-shirt is a cool souvenir
because it has a story behind it. The quality t-shirt is pretty
crap. The colors have all ready started to fade and run after only
one wash.
Cape Coast Castle
Our first touristy thing to do was to visit Cape Coast Castle. It
sported impressive cannons, cool architecture
and great views along the coast.
On the down side, Cape Coast was instrumental
in the Slave Trade. Millions of slaves were deported from West
Africa through Cape Castle. There is a famous door known as
the Door of No Return which every
slave would pass through on their way to America and Europe. It is
interesting to note that some of descendants of these slaves were return
to Liberia where they became known as Americo-Liberians and ruled for
many years.
A tour guide showed us around some of the
dungeons that the slaves were held in while they awaited
deportation. They typically waited between six and eight weeks in
the dungeons. The main dungeon was horrendous.
A small window was all the slaves had to tell day from night. An
African person would usually peer in through the window and report any
slaves that were showing dissension.
Over the course of the Slave Trade, the floor
of the dungeon rose by about 20 centimeters as the shit built
up.
Any slave obnoxious enough to stand up for
their basic human rights were taking to a second, smaller dungeon.
They dissidents were caged up liked animals with up to thirty other
inmates. They were denied water, food and light. It was
pitch black in the dungeon. The five minutes I spent in their were
very unpleasant. The heat alone was overpowering. I don't
think I could of survived a day in there. One poor lady keeled
over with (I assume) heat exhaustion and dehydration not long after
leaving it. No slave survived this dungeon.
It's hard to know what to
make of the whole experience. It's one of those things that is so
overpowering that your emotions just shut down. It's just too big
and horrendous to comprehend. I almost feel guilty in posing for shiny
happy photos.
Canopy Walk
Several years ago, some American sponsored Canadians built a suspended
canopy walk across the top of a rainforest. It all sounded
quite cool so a group us headed north to check it out.
The walk itself was pretty great. The suspension bridge was 13
meters off the ground at its highest point. The views were,
needless to say, awesome. It allowed you see the many
layers of the rainforest.
We were told that there was a slight chance of seeing monkeys and
elephants. Annie reckoned she saw a
monkey's foot. No one saw hide nor hair of an elephant.
Some of us did manage to see a rather large
spider. The body of the spider was about 3 centimeters in
diameter. Some other guys and I were checking it when a fellow
volunteer called Mathew joined us. I said to Mathew,
"Hey. What's that up there buddy?". He peered for
a second or two before finally spotting the spider. The expression
on his face was priceless. Seconded only by his backwards jump.
Wrap Up
I enjoyed hanging out with the volunteers. It was a good
weekend. Cape Coast was interesting, but it wasn't the most
beautiful place in the world.
The history of the castle was sobering and the
beaches - while beautiful - were somewhat ruined
by the shit (literally) and the rubbish. Seeing barefoot kids
searching through the rubbish for something valuable only reminded me
about what a poor place Africa is.
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(c)
2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
All the stuff on this site is written by me, Malcolm Trevena. Feel free to
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