Goree
Island, Senegal, March
5, 2010
Recently
during a trip to Dakar, I made a visit to Goree
Island, a beautiful island in Senegal with a
history as cruel as the island is beautiful.
Where tour guides tell sad and horrific stories
from the dark and disturbing past of African
Slaves.
For
tens to hundreds of millions of Africans, Goree
Island is where the journey out of Africa began.
It is the place where they were shackled, weighed,
separated, whipped, raped, fatten to meet the
60 kilos requirement, and some times thrown
alive to sharks if they were sick or under weight,
as they awaited slave ships that would take
them on difficult journeys across the Atlantic,
to distant shores where they would be auctioned
into slavery.
Goree
Island has an ugly history, but once outside
the slave castle, the island is stunningly beautiful.
Please join me on this tour of Goree Island,
Senegal, March 5, 2010.
The
men, women and children were separated,
and virgins were separated from the
non virgins
|
The
slaves were kept downstairs while the
white slave masters stayed upstairs
|
Ventilation
came through small holes in the walls
of the castle
|
It's
an eerie place, I don't like this space,
"can't wait to get out of here"
|
When
slaves became sick or if their bodies
wouldn't fatten up to the 60 kilos requirement
after being fed for 2 months on beans
and palm oil, they were led down this
corridor, out this door and thrown alive
to hungry sharks in the shark infested
waters.
|
According
to history, this spot was prime feeding
grounds for hungry sharks. The sharks
would follow the slave ships from Goree
Island out to sea, and if slaves became
sick onboard, they were toss overboard
into the sea.
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