Constructed by the Portuguese in 1482, to protect the area called So Jorge da Mina (Saint George of the Mine), or simply Mina in Elmina, Ghana, which was once the Gold Coast. Initially used as a trade settlement, the castle would become one of the most important stops on the Atlantic slave trade, though there are multiple other slave-forts along the coast. The castle acted a depot where people captured in central and interior Africa by slave-catchers from coastal tribes were sold for goods like textiles and horses. Eventually the Dutch operated the castle until the British took over in 1872. Britain granted the Gold Coast its freedom in 1957 and the castle became property of Ghana. It was a prison between 1962 and 2000. Though the slave trade may be gone, the haunting impacts left on this location are not. Many Ghanaians believe the castle is haunted by the ghosts of victims of the slave trade, women that were raped and beaten by the guards and men that were locked in a small and dark solitary confinement cell with no food or water. A tunnel led the captives to boats where they would get one last glimpse of their homeland. Many people find themselves profoundly impacted by the spirits that surround this castle, weeping and collapsing from the weight of a horrific history.
