Cape Coast
Before we set off for our weekend at Cape Coast, we had a good Nigerian breakfast, prepared by Anthonia. Noah and I had been in charge of getting the ingredients at the market on Thursday, but as it turns out we really had no idea and bought the wrong food. Instead of getting Yam, a potato like vegetable, just much bigger, we got Kasawa which to me looked alike but tastes quite different. While everybody else was sleeping in on our free friday Anthonia, Noah and I thus had to get back to the market to buy the right food.
In the early afternoon we got started to go to Cape Coast. We had a nice air-conditioned mini-van where our whole group of twelve interns found place. It was the first time many of us got to leave the city and explore a little bit more of the country. Having left Accra and the traffic jams behind us, the green Ghanaian nature enfolded in front of us. We passed the hills, surrounding Accra and the many little villages along the coast. We were brought to the Aiesec house in Cape Coast and we were welcomed by the local team. It was already quite late but as we still wanted to explore the new place, they guided us through the city and to the beach. It was too good to feel the cold ocean wind after a week of city smog. We decided to get dinner at a nice beach restaurant, where even a show with traditional African dance was already waiting for us and giving our first vacation-day a perfect closure.
On Saturday we explored the Cape Coast Castle, one of the main slave-turning-points of the 17th to 19th century. The castle was beautiful and impressive. Looking over the sea and its white paint it was very inviting. That is, until we had the guided tour through the ancient cells for slaves, where they had to wait up to three month until they passed the „door of no return“ and entered the ships to the Americas and Europe. The small, stuffy, and dark cells stand again in extreme contrast to the light and wide rooms and resident halls of the English governors, ruling over the castle.
When the tour was finished, we decided to enjoy the Cape Coast beach for the rest of the day. We swam in the sea, enjoyed the sun and watched the rugby training of a highly motivated high school sports team.
Cape Coast showed me a different side of Ghana. Not only is it filled with sights of the country’s history but also much cleaner and organized than Accra. It is the ethical group of the Fanti who reside in this area. They have their proper language and culture and are especially known for their excellent knowledge of English, based on the importance of the region in times of the English colonialization.
We returned Sunday night and were surprised by new interns who had arrived during the weekend.
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