Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I had an Indiana Jones Experience today, ten times better than the ride at Disney. Since the hotel owner was leaving Axim for Accra, he took us on a morning excursion to Fort Anthony. Like all 14^th Century forts on the Ghanaian coast, this was an old slave-trading hub…otherwise know as a human dungeon.

It was small in comparison to the one at Cape Coast, and having been built in 1520 was the second oldest fort/castle in Africa. What made it particularly unique was that slaves were shoved into a tunnel and forced to walk under the ocean to a deserted island where they were loaded on ships to the new world. The passageway is blocked, but in the fort you can see the door and the chute they would push people through and down.

A nice Christian man was touring with his group of Western missionaries at the same time we were in the castle. He asked if we wanted to join his group of 7 to head to the deserted island in the ocean and see the other end of the slave passageway. We agreed, and walked over dead fish and sharks to board a small wooden boat rocking precariously in the waves. After boarding the vessel, we headed through the surf to the island. We were accompanied by 4 Ghanaian fisherman…one of whom I think had cataracts, but he was only 10 years old!

When we arrived the shore was lush with mangrove trees. We jumped off the boat and into the jungle. Through a canopy of banana trees we walked up a staircase that reminded me of the entrance to a Mayan temple – big sand-colored stone stairs with a flat walkway in the middle. It lead to a violent rocky sea cliff that waves angrily crashed against. At the level of the surf you could see the exit of the slave passageway, being highlighted by the foaming sea. The island teemed with life – insects, mangos, coconuts, birds…but even the bustling paradise couldn’t over shadow the human atrocities committed there.

I spent several minutes staring at the turbulent surf. We didn’t find any archeological treasures, or life-threatening situations like Indiana Jones would have…but I still felt like an adventurer.