Forts, Castles & the Slave Trade

When the Portuguese raised São Jorge da Mina at Elmina in 1482 — the oldest European building in sub-Saharan Africa — they came for gold, not people. The shoreline’s riches gave the whole region its colonial name: the Gold Coast. Dutch, British, Danish, Swedish and Brandenburg traders followed, dotting 500 kilometres of coast with fortified trading posts.

From the 17th century, the commerce darkened. The same ocean-facing dungeons built to store gold were packed with captive Africans awaiting the Middle Passage. Elmina and Cape Coast castles became two of the most notorious slave departure points in Africa; millions passed through the “Door of No Return” into ships bound for the Americas.

Britain abolished its slave trade in 1807, and the forts’ purpose shifted again toward “legitimate” commerce and, eventually, colonial administration. In 1979 UNESCO listed the forts and castles as World Heritage sites. Today Elmina and Cape Coast draw visitors from across the diaspora — including the hundreds of thousands who came for the Year of Return in 2019.