The ocean views are stunning, but it’s the tragic past of Ghana’s rugged coast that is also drawing in visitors, thanks in part to America’s first black president. Perched on the windswept edge of West Africa, the imposing whitewashed former slave trading fort known as Cape Coast Castle has seen a steady increase in visitors since US President Barack Obama and his family toured here in 2009. The dark dungeons where untold numbers of people were kept before being shipped off as slaves serve as stark reminders of the brutality they endured — a point of view perhaps too often overlooked in the Western world.
An increasing number of descendants of slaves and historically minded tourists have sought out this history, and a number of them have found their way to Cape Coast Castle. ”It’s something I want to see once — it’s so confronting,” Hannah Richardson-Smith, an Australian, said recently outside the castle. Obama, whose wife Michelle traces her ancestry to slaves, chose Ghana for his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as president in July 2009, and he and his family made sure to stop at Cape Coast Castle, now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.0
source – madamenoire
