Dorie and Sarah outside of the Door of No Return. A few years back, descendants of slaves from the US mounted a sign on the outside that says "Door of Return."

These wreaths have been laid by visitors from the African Diaspora, who've come from all over the world, to see where their enslaved ancestors would probably have spent their last days in Africa.

Looking through the door of no return. Slaves exited the castle through this door to board slave ships tp the New World. None of them ever returned.Today, fishing boats are anchored on the other side of the door where slave ships would have been waiting to slaves who were to be shipped off.

The entrance to the male slave dungeon at Cape Coast castle in Ghana. Unspeakable horrors were perpetrated on the men kept here by the Dutch, Danes, and English. This place was the front end of the transatlantic slave trade that delivered African men, women, and children to the Americas and Europe as cheap labor for building their countries.

Cannonballs left behind from an earlier era at Cape Coast slave fortress in Ghana.

Ghana Gold Coast West Africa Westafrika Afrika Afrique de l'Oueste

Cape Coast, Ghana, 2016

We wanted to visit Cape Coast Castle (which I did not see last time either), but it was raining and we skipped that. So all I got from the castle is a photo of a bird on a cannon:-)

The guns of Cape Coast Castle, aimed at potential threats from the Atlantic Ocean. The only thing Europeans seemed to agree upon was to enslave as many of the native population as they could. Otherwise they regularly fought with each other for the lucrative trade on Ghana's west coast.

Fishing village near Cape Coast.

This doorway led to a dungeon where slaves were kept before exiting through the "Door of No Return" to board ships that would take them to the Americas. Slaves generally came from west African countries such as modern day Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Ivory Coast, Mali, Benin, Congo, Angola, The Gambia, and Guinea. The men had to bend over to go through the approximately 15-20 yard passegway and could only enter one at a time. This enabled the soldiers guarding them to have more control over the slaves' movements.

Artillery pieces from another century still stand watch at Cape Coast Castle in Ghana.

Fishing boats next to the castle--one boat is marked with a Jesus flag.

Fishermen just behind the 'DOOR OF RETURN' at the foot of Cape Coast Castle, Cape Coast, Ghana.

It is 'amazing' how clean and unpolluted the water and coast is irrespective of high population and heavy human activity on its bank.

It wouldn't have been possible for the people to fish in their water or even near the Castle if not for the abolition of slave trade in 1807.

A view through the Cape Coast Castle walls, where untold numbers of West African slaves were auctioned, housed and shipped westward. 3 exposure HDR.

Africans who were captured by the Portugese, Dutch, Swedes, French, and English entered the slave dungeons through this doorway. It was pure hell inside. LIght and ventilation came from one hole at the roof line. A drainage ditch was the toilet. The floor still has the feces of millions of Africans embedded into it.

Cape Coast Castle is an old slave fortress on the shores of the former Gold Coast.

A Ghanian fishing boat slides past Cape Coast Castle.

This sign could also read "the room from which many women were taken to be raped". If & when women were found to be pregnant they were spared the trip to the Americas just long enough to give birth. Their children were sent to special schools in Ghana while the mothers were sent back into slavery. If they were found pregnant on a slave ship they were tossed overboard.