Day 15 - Tour of Fort William

Today is another day filled with bone examination but also we finally arranged a tour of Fort William where we have been staying. It’s about time we learn about the place we are staying in and its role in the slave trade and colonial times!

Uncle Phillip is the caretaker of both Fort William in Anomabo and Fort Amsterdam in neighboring Abandze. He has a wealth of knowledge about the history of both sites and gives tours on a consistent basis.

The construction of Fort William began by the English in 1753 and was completed by around 1760. I am told that it is estimated that the most slaves were taken out of Fort William than any other fort in the area. By the 1800s, a war between the Fante and Ashanti also played a role in the enslavement of people. The fort was later transformed into a youth center for some time during the mid-20^th century but then used as a prison for Ghanaian outlaws for 40 years up until about 15 years ago.

View facing northeast inside Fort William. The structure at the base of the fort in this picture is the slave market where slaves were examined by medical personnel and their potential for labor was assessed and then they were auctioned off. When Fort William was turned into prison, this area was converted into a kitchen.

View looking southeast inside Fort William. The female slave dungeon is on the far right side where our tents are (yeah, kind of creeping we sleep on top of a dungeon). To the left below the walkway are officer and VIP quarters. Above the walkway is the youth center that is now a library for local students.

View from the southeast bastion of Fort William overlooking the beach and fishing vessels.

Day 14 - My first look at the bones from the 2009 excavations

Just in case you don’t know, I’m a human bone expert. I am a physical anthropologist and an archaeologist that specializes in archaeological human skeletons (in the US oftentimes known as a bioarchaeologist). So as a human skeletal biologist, my job on archaeological excavations is to dig burials out of the ground with care and record them to the best of my ability; then, take the bones back to the lab and study them. This means trying to find out how old the person was when they died, does the skeleton exhibit male or female characteristics, did they experience any health-related problems or pathological conditions during life, and sometimes, an estimation of how tall they were around the time of death.

Some people might call it glorified grave robbing, and that’s fine. I call it answering questions as to what life might have been in the past.

During the 2009 excavations, two intact burials were exhumed. I proceeded to unpack and clean the first burial. I noticed the bones of the legs were very small, short, and not fully developed. This told me that this individual was likely between 5-10 years of age at death. I then took a quick peak at the teeth, and sure enough, this individual was likely 4-8 years of age at death, mean 6 years.

Day 13 - The road back to Anomabo and Fort William

Tom had to take Aimee back to the airport early in the morning and I slept in until Tom arrived back at the Jempat. Peter drove Tom and Aimee to the airport and then Tom picked up our Dodge Voyager that we will be cruising around in.

We went to another part of Adenta where the leader of the project. Dr. E. Kofi Agorsah. has a house. There we grabbed a number of artifact boxes, tents, and mattresses. After I leave, Tom and Kofi will continue to run the excavations with a number of student volunteers from both Portland State University (where Dr. Agorsah is the chair of the Black and International Studies department) and the University of Cape Coast. Some of the students will arrive from the University of Cape Coast during my stay but the students from Portland State that are conducting a capstone class will not. Kofi will not arrive in Anomabo until around Day 22 as he still has responsibilities at the department in Portland and other business to attend when he arrives in Accra.

After Tom and I loaded up the van we were off to the Central Region; back to the Gold Coast, back to Anomabo, back to life as usual at Fort William.

We left Accra at around 10:30am and the traffic was very easy to move through in the city; however, one thing that held us up was the police. In Ghana, police set up both random and set check points on the road and signal drivers to drive on or pull over. Sometimes they single out taxis, but today they singled us out. We got singled over twice. The first time the police officer wanted to check Tom’s international driving permit but the second stop we a little more entertaining. When we got pulled over the second time, the police officer came up to the side of the van, didn’t ask for proof of a license or a proof of insurance, just immediately looked down at Tom’s feet and noticed that he had flip-flops on. The police told Tom that these were illegal to drive with in Ghana. Tom told him he would change into shoes but the officer told him that he would have to arrest him first. Really?! Tom was able to articulate himself enough to the officer and let us go. We pulled into a gas station so he could change into shoes. Tom has told me that he has been pulled over countless times and the police are oftentimes looking for a bribe. And, he has paid them off before. Common practice I’m told when dealing with Ghana police.

We stopped for lunch at a place about 45 minutes from our destination. I wanted to have more banku and ordered it. The waitress was taken aback by a white person ordering banku and she proceeded to tell me that I had to eat it all; banku and tilapia…no problem, all gone.

We still made great time back to Fort William. Thank goodness…it took so much longer the last time we made this trip!

We arrived at Fort William around 3:30 and began unpacking and setting up our tents. Not much of an entertaining day. Now back to life at Fort William.

Day 12 - The trek back to Accra and the Ghana National Museum

Today we head back to Accra to pick a van that has just been serviced for our travels along the Gold Coast. Also, Tom’s girlfriend Aimee is heading back to Portland where they reside.

We got up early in the morning and headed to a junction about 20 minutes west. To get to Accra there are a few options. The option we were taking was a comfortable air conditioned bus to a junction in Accra and then a taxi to the Jempat Hotel in Adenta where I first stayed upon arrival.

The other option is to take a small 9-person van known as a cho cho that escorts people to many places around the area. The cho cho drivers in Accra make for most of the traffic and hold ups I imagine. They make all sorts of dangerous passing maneuvers and line their vans on the side of the road and block traffic repeatedly. The also like to pass on the shoulder and squeeze in busy traffic, even on unpaved shoulders with extremely rocky paths. They are quite a site to see, but I would not be caught dead in a cho cho. They are often involved in many fatal accidents and many people involved in the accidents rarely survive. Though the danger of the cho cho might be exaggerated in this instance, many Ghanaians use the cho chos as a prime method of transportation and they are much cheaper than a taxi. Yeah, the air conditioned bus sounds like a much safer and smoother ride.

Another interesting thing is the hand motions that are used while in the cho chos and on the side of the road. Most often there is someone with their arm outside the cho cho window making hand signals as well as those on the side of the road communicating with the cho chos and drivers hopefully willing to pick up a hitch-hiker. When zooming by, Ghanaians in the cho cho and the side of the road will point to the sky meaning that the cho cho is going a far distance (and making less local stops) or the hitch-hiker wants to go far. Conversely, if one points down, this means that the person would like to only go a short distance; a little more complex than just a thumbs up for a ride.

We made it back to the Jempat in Adenta, dropped off our things and headed straight to the Ghana National Museum. This was an important place to visit since there was some background information to soak in at the museum. As we approached the museum counter, I noticed that the memory card in my camera was still in my computer. Blasted! So I’m sorry no pics! Believe me I am just as disappointed.

The museum appeared fairly well kept with artifacts, pictures, and recreations from many tribal areas of Ghana as well as the Ivory Coast and other places in West Africa like Nigeria if I can remember correctly.

There are some examples of bark cloth and a number of ceremonial seats for chiefs. There were also some amazing instruments made of wood and wire including a lyre and yes a xylophone! One of my favorite pieces was a necklace made of human teeth. A number of other pieces included wood sculptures depicting everyday events and a recreation of a tribal kitchen, which included a mortar and pestle presumably to pound cassava and plantains. Other areas of the bottom floor had a history of the slave trade with many captions about places that I have already been like Elmina and Cape Coast Castle.

Upstairs were some displays of archaeological excavations that had been conducted in the recent past in areas just north of Fort William, around Accra, and in Kumasi. Knowledge of these archaeological sites is significant since they house comparative samples by which to better contextualize historic Kormantse, and overall, populations that are part of the African Diaspora.

I love museums, but they always drain me of energy. After a long day of travel and nerdiness, I relaxed in my hotel room yet the museum actually motivated me to do more nerdy things by conducting some more background research on the history of bioarchaeological research in the Americas, including the last 50 years or so of the proceedings of the International Association for Caribbean Archaeology. I know, to most of you, an evening bursting with excitement.

Days 10 & 11 - Anomabo Beach Resort

Early this morning I could not sleep. I’m not entirely sure why. So at about 2:30am I decided that I can’t go back to sleep and I should do something to pass the time; maybe it will make me feel tired enough to go back to sleep. I thought catching up on my blog for a few hours was the perfect thing to do. And I did so for about two hours.

Two hours later I turned off my computer and headed back up the steps and toward my tent. Tom and Aimee were sleeping in a tent nearby and I wanted to do my best to keep quite.

So I did but I also did not want to shine my headlamp around and wake them up. As I finished the stairs and turned the corner, I tripped over what I now know to be the ventilation shaft of a female slave dungeon and scraped my toe, shin, and knee. My knee had by far the deepest gash and was bleeding pretty badly down my leg. I quickly washed my leg and found our first aid kit. I spent about an hour treating myself and then laid down at about 5:30am. Our team was planning to get up at 6:00am.

At around 6:15am I woke up…er simply got up from lying in my tent for 45 minutes in uncomfortable-ness as my right leg pulsated.

We took down our tents and packed up our belongings and headed just west down the road to the Anomabo Beach Resort. The Gold Coast is littered with beach resorts but this one is fairly nice with good accommodations, close to Fort William, and not too costly. Tom and Aimee were staying in an air conditioned hut and I was sleeping in a tent on the sand close-by.

The next two days I spent lying on the beach, tending my leg, relaxing, reading, and eating a mix of local food and Euroamerican cuisine.

I didn’t take any pics. I just enjoyed some of their accommodations, like a hot shower and a good toilet as well as some peace and quite. Since Fort William is right on the water, we hear the sound of the fishermen, their boats and some of their 75 horsepower engines as early as about 3:30am.

The Anomabo Beach Resort is the perfect getaway from Fort William. When the excavation is in full swing, I will likely come back on a weekend or two and spoil myself…maybe drink some water out of a coconut or two.

Day 9 - Acquiring the archaeology permit, negotiating more construction and preparing to leave Fort William...temporarily

Today was not truly eventful. Tom went to Cape Coast Castle to negotiate with the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board to finalize the archaeology permit for the excavations to take place in the near future as well as confirm the plans to put a toilet and a shower in the fort.

Yes, at present, there is neither a toilet nor a shower in the fort itself. Ghanaian males only use the toilet when they have to take a crap. If they simply need to urinate, they will pretty much do so at anywhere I suppose. I have seen far too many people urinating where they please here. We have a super secret spot in the fort where we urinate but if we need to go number 2 there are a few options. One option is to go to one of the nearby rest stops or hotels and use their public restrooms that are fairly well kept; by far the best option and the most executed. Another option is to use a bathroom which Tom termed a “violently abused” public toilet in the village. Anomabo, like other villages on the coast, is a fishing village. When we sit on the bastion of the fort on the far south/southeasterly side, we can see a number of fishing vessels that go out every morning. So, the public bathroom is used and managed mostly by fishermen I presume.

To use the public toilet, it costs about 5 pesawas, which is about 3 cents. But since we are not from around here (that is Ah-broh-nees), the boys that manage the restrooms tried to charge us 1 cedi (about 60 cents). We told them there was no way we were paying that and we told them that it was 5 pesawas. They asked us how we knew and we pointed to the wall of the bathroom that said “5 pesawas”. Trying to swindle an Ahbrohnee huh? After you pay the fee they hand you about half a page of a 5 year old Italian newspaper. And believe me if even I could read/speak Italian, this newspaper would still not be intended for reading material. Luckily I had toilet paper with me. Next, you grab a bucket so that you can put water in the toilet bowl and flush it. I won’t go into detail of the toilets, but it was easily the most disgusting bathroom I have ever been in. And I have only used this toilet once and only once during my stay thus far, thank goodness, and hopefully it will stay that way.

The third option is to just crap on the beach, and this is what most of the locals do. This could be because most people can’t afford a toilet of their own, can’t afford the 5 pesawas to use the public toilet, or this is just how they have been taught as an acceptable means of discarding their waste. If you walk along the Anomabo beach in the morning/afternoon, you will find a number of children of all ages playing soccer, nearly three or four games going on. Up on the sand you will notice the area where high tide has made its mark on the beach. This is where you will see people of all ages squatting and taking a crap. Once high tide rolls through, it washes away the waste. I can’t wait until we have a working toilet in Fort William.

And maybe a proper shower might be developed for the fort. This is how you presently “shower” in Fort William. There are a number of cisterns that catch rain water. You take a bucket and lower it down and fill up about two buckets. We have spot in the fort designated for washing and I think you can figure out the rest.

So yes a shower and a toilet soon would be great. We are preparing to leave for the Anomabo Beach Resort tomorrow for some r and r then head back to Accra to pick up our van (it has been in the shop getting a new transmission) so that Peter doesn’t have to keep driving us all over the place.

A real shower and a cleaner toilet are on their way! I am told that the Anomabo Beach Resort has water heaters for their showers. Now this will be a treat!

Day 8 - More preparations, meetings and local food

Much of the first half of the day was spent securing Fort William in Anomabo and also making preparations for a display of the past archaeological excavations for VIPs and dignitaries in the coming weeks. This included meeting with a local carpenter and getting new locks on some of the doors and making a request for more tables and some easels for displays.

After this was done we headed to Cape Coast Castle to meet with the Director and Head Curator about making more improvements to Fort William and plans for our future digging.

For fun I thought I would discuss some of the languages that are spoken in Ghana.

Fante is the language predominantly spoken along this part of the coast, but not the entire coastline of Ghana. Ashanti is the main language spoken just north. I have been told that Fante and Ashanti are similar with only a few differences. In Accra most people speak Twe.

Quick beginners Fante lesson:

Good morning (Moh-wah-chay or Mwah-chay)

Good afternoon (Moh-wah-hah or Mwah-hah)

Good evening (Moh-wah-joe or Mwah-joe)

These greetings are for one person only. To greet a group of people one can add Mem-may before the greeting.

Sleep well (Dah-yee-yay)

How are you? (Wah-poh-may)

God grace or given God’s grace (Nah-meh-ah-doom); this is a response to Wah-poh-may

Thank you (Mah-dah-see)

No thank you (Mee-soo mah-dah-see)

White person/stranger (Ah-broh-nee)

This last for white person is great. Little kids roam the village streets in Anomabo and once they see you they shout out AH-BROH-NEE! Some of them in groups will start chanting it and clapping. It makes for some fun and I try and greet them. Some of them become very shy and are a bit startled once I start speaking Fante to them. But they love to wave and of course ask for Ah-broh-nee cash cash cash. They also will use their bit of English that they know such as “Ah-broh-nee how are you?” and I will ask them the same thing and they will say “I am fine.” It is very cute.

I was very excited for dinner tonight. There is a corn meal based food known as kenkey that the locals eat and I have been asking our driver Peter about is incessantly…probably to the point that it was getting on his nerves. So while on the way back from Cape Coast Castle, Peter asked us if we should stop and get some. There is a strip along the main highway en route to Cape Coast that has a ton of women selling kinkey on the side of the road. Many of these women have consistent clients and likely attract new ones, but mostly they are referred to by word of mouth. Peter knew exactly which stand to stop at and he recommends her to anyone that desires kinkey if they are in this area. We stopped by Mama Joyce’s stand and purchased kenkey and another woman gave us a sample of fried shrimp. The shrimp wasn’t peeled and the head was still on it, but I just ripped the head off and went for it. The shrimp shell isn’t that bad if it’s fried people. You might want to try it like this…nice and crunchy.

Kenkey is not really consumed alone but rather with a stew of some sorts and some type of meat. Stew in Ghana is not a thick soup like Americans think it to be but more so just a thick sauce. Peter informed us that we could find a spot in town that would make the stew, and also prepare some fish, likely some type of red fish or snapper, it would be ideal.

A local bar/shop in town that we have given a lot of business in the past, known as Ma Lizzy’s, was just the place to ask to prepare the food. Ma Lizzy is very nice to us Ah-broh-nees and was extremely happy to take on the task.

We went back to Fort William for a few hours to take a load off because the stew takes some time to prepare. It is made with tomatoes, onions, crushed red pepper, and probably palm oil, and cooked on high until most everything is boiled down to a pulp.

We ate the kenkey just like banku, with our hands, picking off pieces and dipping it in the stew and clumping it with fried fish. The kenkey tasted like moist, condensed corn bread. Pretty tasty. A full belly makes for a fair night’s rest.

Day 7 - Kakum National Forest and Cape Coast Castle

Today we had two big things on the agenda: a visit to Kakum National Park and a tour of Cape Coast Castle.

We went to Kakum National Park because they have a really neat suspension bridge that is about 350 meters in total length and appears to reach approximately 60 meters high in some spots. Also, the nature walk was recommended because it will help us learn about the surrounding wildlife and the materials that the local people use in fishing and foodways. The national park was about 30 kilometers from a main junction on the way to Cape Coast. We arrived at the visitor center and patiently waited for enough tourists to crowd the place before the tour commenced.

The suspension bridge was designed and built by Canadian engineers and is said to be very sturdy with the ability to hold 8 tons. Our guide said elephants could happily dance on it (this I would like to see). The suspension bridge certainly shakes and Tom and I had a good time swaying and bouncing. And this was not just one long suspension bridge; it was a network of a number of suspension bridges that entangled the forest that one could glide through.

Segments of the impressive suspension bridge.

The nature walk was even better. We meandered through a trail in the dense jungle and mostly our guide located trees. We saw an ebony tree early on. The bark of the tree is very coarse and the elephant loves to scratch its hide on it; probably the first take on ebony and ivory before the piano. Another tree locally known as Onyina or silk cottonwood can be used for paper and clothing. The tree is soft enough that with sufficient pounding it can be made into a fabric known as bark cloth. Another tree known as the Celtis has very long roots that extend further up the base of the tree like webbing and the top part of the root is long and round like a staff. This portion of the tree is removed and used as a pounder for cassava and plantains. By far the coolest tree was the Fagara which contains large spikes on the trunk and they gradually become smaller up the tree. This is the tree’s defense mechanism to keep away animals such as elephants and even the 5 species of primates that roam the forest such as the white colobus monkey.

Local tree known as Fagara with spikes on the trunk to protect it from animals.

After we arrived on the main road, we stopped at a local restaurant and I stuffed my face with more banku and tilapia. Mmmmm good.

Cape Coast Castle was the next important historic site that I needed to familiarize myself with. I have been to Cape Coast Castle a number of times already during my stay thus far as we do business with the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board simply to secure permission to conduct archaeological investigations in the coming weeks and rub elbows with the VIPs and curators. Cape Cope Castle was originally constructed by the Swedes in the 1650s and later taken by the Dutch in 1663 and the British took it a year later. The castle was an important administrative center for the British, more importantly in the mid-nineteenth century. It is a very important historic site for the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Cape Coast Castle appears much larger than Elmina Castle with a large entryway and impressive courtyard. Similar structures also remain such as a holding cell for insubordinate slaves as well as male and female slave dungeons, but they are much larger. The male dungeon alone could likely hold 1,000 slaves at a time.

View of the courtyard inside Cape Coast Castle.

Before you enter the male slave dungeon a plaque commemorating current President Barack Obama’s visit to Ghana on July 11^th of last year is visible. Furthermore, the President took a tour of the castle with the first family and also gave a speech in the grandiose courtyard that overlooks the ocean.

Plaque commemorating President Barack Obama’s visit last year.

Deep inside the entrance is a huge dungeon. Our tour guide took us to a dungeon that had very little access to outside light and explained that this was one of the main portions of the dungeon that was stuffed to the brim with slaves during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Like most of these dungeons, they have been cleaned out. However, a portion of the accumulation of filth was left by the curators to demonstrate the amount of excrement that had built up over the years of dungeon use. Another gloomy feeling passed over me while thinking about the horrid and inhumane living conditions the slaves were put through.

A view looking out of the male slave dungeon.

A portion of the 5 cm of filth that accumulated during the holding of male slaves in the dungeon.

Another long day packed with many events...time to soak up some salt air and get some shut eye.