Photo contributed by Elizabeth MacGonagle

Elizabeth MacGonagle, assistant professor of history and African, African-American studies, walks with the owner of a guest house through one of the slave forts on the western coast of Ghana. The guest house was converted from a slave fort.

Editor’s note: This is the first installment in a series of articles written for Black History Month.

The western coast of Africa was lined with approximately 60 forts that were once used as dungeons to contain slaves in the peak of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

More than 120 years later, one-third of those forts remain standing.

Despite their relic appearance, forts on the western coast of Africa are part of a debate among historians and African citizens.

“Some of the people of African heritage say that’s white washing our history if you make it look all neat and clean and keep it painted and have a potted plant there,” Elizabeth MacGonagle said. She also said others say that there is value in preserving such sites so people can visit them and learn more about the past.

MacGonagle, assistant professor of history and African, African-American studies, is an expert on the African slave trade.

Some of the existing forts have gone from housing slaves and prisoners to housing books in libraries, or guests who pay to learn about this part of African history.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has designated some of these forts as protected World Heritage sites. The Ghana and Monuments Board has also turned some of the remaining forts into government offices as well as museums.

The forts are worth keeping safe because of their historical value, MacGonagle said.

Research she is gathering will be used in an article she is writing about forts.

As part of her research MacGonagle slept in two forts that were converted into guest houses.

“It was pretty unsettling,” MacGonagle said. “It didn’t make for a good night’s sleep.”

MacGonagle went to Ghana in the winter of 2002 to gather research about the coastal slave forts and how they are used today.

The article, “Reclaiming History: The Changing Use of Slave Forts in Ghana,” takes a look at some of these changes and how they have affected the history and people of Ghana.

Forts and other aspects of African heritage are being used as “racialized remembrance,” which provides the opportunity to learn about the history of slavery.

One fort had a sign welcoming back people whose ancestors were taken during the trade. The door was known as “The Door of No Return.”

It was the last thing many Africans saw before being shipped to the new world.

The slave forts were first used and built by the major European powers involved in the Atlantic slave trade. Garth Myers, professor of geology and African, African-American studies, said that among the British, French, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese, the majority of the slaves taken from the African coasts were taken to Brazil by the Portuguese.

...

Major players in the slave trade

The major players in the Atlantic Slave Trade: British, French, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese

• 40 percent of the slaves brought to the new world went to Brazil.
• Portugal was responsible for the majority of the slave trade.
• Great Britain was the largest slave exporter by the 18th century.
• Great Britain and France had stopped trading slaves by 1807.
• 1.3 million slaves were smuggled into the Americas after 1807.
• Cuba abolished the trade in 1860.
• Brazil abolished trade in 1880.

Source: department of African-American studies

Edited by Jennifer Voldness