Slave Castles and Parallels

Part 4: Ghana Project. InspireMath. Visit to Cape Coast Slave Castle. Wasn't prepared. The level of atrocity and humiliation is not adequately detailed in any book I've read. For example we stood in a dungeon (beneath the castle church ) cells maybe 30 by 15 which held 200 slaves who were kept in their own excrement in dark, humid squalid conditions. The floor we stood on was recently discovered under 4ft of feces and dead skin. The only deprived minds can create such a expertly contrived system of human torture and humiliation. The women separated. The radicals kept from the main groups. Trouble makers suffocated together and displayed. Across the middle passage bodies were thrown over. Some jumped or Rose up. It is said sharks learned to cross the Atlantic on the human chum source. Broken. Because religion.

Distorted religion played a crucial role from start to today in the subjugation of Black people within this construct. They/we still struggle with it. Distorted religion. I wrestle with that. Too much to reflect on. The slave castles reminded of schools and education. I keep thinking about the system that is schooling for Black children here and elsewhere. Masses funneled into holding pens. Separate. 25% don't even make it to market (think retention and dropout rates). Then even more never survive the trip. Those who make it. Most can never return. Parallels.