Narratives of Elmina Castle

Abstract

This is a long narrative poem based on the history ofElmina Castle, Ghana. The Elmina Castle was built as a trade post by the Portuguese in 1482 to protect the gold-rich land they discovered earlier in 1471. The land on which the Castle was built was acquired from the F ante tribe of present day Ghana. Peaceful trade relations later developed into the selling of human captives from the 16th to the 19th Centuries to work the huge sugar and cotton plantations in the New World. The Narratives begin with an invocation to Mother Africa. The Narratives go on to discuss the sufferings of the captives and the long voyage in barbaric and inhumane conditions. The suffering is clearly illustrated in the dirges that are intermittently dispersed throughout the narratives. There is also a sequence of African wives' (of European governors) tales. The last feature of the narratives is an invocation to the European nations discussed in the narratives, the Portuguese, Dutch, and the British, to make reparations to the people of Africa.