The Door of No Return
For nearly 200 years, Elmina Castle was one of the most prominent staging posts of the transatlantic slave trade. Today it stands as a reminder of humanity's inhumanity of the past. But is it really in the past?
Looking at the peaceful scenes of fishermen hauling in their catch and repairing their nets in the shadows of Elmina Castle in modern-day Ghana, it is hard to imagine the terror their ancestors must have felt as they entered the dark, overcrowded dungeons beneath the castle, at the height of the transatlantic slave trade.
Originally built as a trading depository for gold and other commodities, by the 17th century, it had become one of West Africa's most significant staging posts of the slave route between Africa and the newly colonised Americas. For the next two hundred years, human beings were the only commodity passing through the castle.
Ripped from their homes across West Africa, newly enslaved people endured months of squalor, locked up with hundreds of other souls packed into each of the dungeons as they waited for the transport ships to arrive. Males and Females were segregated, and families were torn apart as parents were separated from their children.
Abuse was rife at Elmina, so much so that special ladders were constructed to allow the European traders living in opulent quarters above the dungeons to select enslaved people to be brought directly to their rooms — a shortcut to abuse.
With no provision for sanitation, health, or well-being, many did not survive the horror and despair of Elmina. Those who did were forced to pass through the "Door of No Return" when the slave boats finally arrived. This now infamous door led to the gangplanks used to load the ships directly from the dungeons.
So efficient were the traders in human misery that hundreds of thousands of enslaved people passed through Elmina – just one of the many similar trading posts across Africa – before the abolition of slavery across Europe in the 19th century. Today, the castle is a reminder of one of the most inhumane periods in human history, which ended hundreds of years ago.
Or did it?
For many people living today, the effects of slavery are still very much felt. The last enslaved person transported from Africa, Matilda McCrear, only passed away in the 1940s. And while the descendants of enslaved people largely remain destitute, the descendants of their enslavers continue to enjoy the benefits of wealth gained from exploiting others. Some of the most affluent and influential companies trading today were built directly on the profits of slavery.
It is also a common misconception that the injustices of slavery can only be found in history books and stories of the past. The tragic reality is that the enslavement of people remains a scourge of humanity, even in the 21st century. Slavery wasn't officially abolished globally until 1981, and even then, the last country to outlaw the practice, Mauritania, failed to pass any laws to enforce the ban. According to IOM, the UN migration agency, fifty million people worldwide were living in modern slavery as recently as 2021.
Slavery remains as much of a modern-day issue as it ever was, and until we acknowledge that its existence is not confined to the past, we can not begin to heal in the present. Until then, Elmina's Door of No Return will remain open on the conscience of humanity, a quiet testimony not only to the inhumanities of the past but also to those of the present.
