Tour of the Elmina Fort & Dungeon was extremely informative and thus depressing. This building was the primary location with respect to where enslaved Africans were placed until they were shipped across the Atlantic.
Holding dungeons. On the right is a holding cell for the British soldiers that were misbehaving. This room has a window and has plenty of ventilation. The holding cell on the left was for enslaved Africans that were resisting. There was no window or form of light when the door was shut and the only form of oxygen came from a room that was to the left, a room where weaponry was held and all they would inhale was recycled air and filled with gunpowder residue.
Once a church while the Portuguese occupied the fort but became a police training location for the British when they took over. It is now a museum.
How the British would keep an eye on the Dungeons
The courtyard
Hundreds, if not thousands, of bats filled this one room. Even with the door open, they refuse to leave. Locals believe that is it the spirit of the ancestors or previous occupants that suffered in the dungeons and refuse to leave. They believe the purpose is to ensure something as horrific as what they experienced will never happen again.
