Keta Fort

Last Saturday we traveled with several couples to the eastern coastal region of Ghana near the Togo border to observe a Ghanaian durbar, where beautifully adorned kings, queens, chiefs, and their elders appear in public procession amidst intensive drumming, singing, and dancing. Unfortunately, we never found the celebration, but we did enjoy some spectacular scenery on our search for Keta Fort, a former slave prison in the Volta Region. On the map below, there's a small body of water that juts inland between where the Volta River empties into the Gulf of Guinea and the border of Togo (bottom right hand corner of Ghana). We enjoyed driving through fishing and farming villages in this area. 

 

  

The coast is low-lying with natural harbors.

We stopped to stretch our legs and get a closer look at the boats. 

  

Dozens of these boats lined the shoreline.

These must be some kind of fishing nets.

  

Handmade sails to catch a gentle wind. Men and boys were
thoroughly enjoying the cool water on a very hot day.   

The boy in front is dragging a tool to dredge up the sand. Others
follow to collect something valuable, probably for dinner that night.

  

We found the crumbling structure of Keta Fort, one of Ghana's
infamous dungeons where thousands of slaves were kept before
being transported to the Caribbean and the Americas.

Many of the visitors now are African Americans in search of their
ancestors; several of them have found records of their great-great-
grandparents in the tattered "stock" books in the fort.

  

Outside the women's section of the dungeon, where many died in
appalling conditions during the slave trade in West Africa.

Four rough-hewn hollowed out cement blocks about 3 feet deep
and wide, used as baths for the prisoners.

There are no words to describe these last few pictures, plus many more that we took at Keta Fort. We drove away deeply humbled by what we observed and heard that morning.