The Pra River descends from the Ghanaian central highlands and flows south to the Atlantic Ocean. The river drains a lush tropical forest as it gently meanders on its course. It empties into the Gulf of Guinea not too far from the slave castles of Cape Coast and Elmina. About 30 miles above Cape Coast, a tributary replenishes the Pra with cool fresh water. It is a beautiful spot.
And is it this confluence that is complicit in crimes against humanity. The location is known as The Slave River, a site of the Last Bath that enslaved Africans took on the continent before being stolen to the Caribbean and the Americas and a lifetime of chattel slavery.
In some ways, it a familiar tale. Africans, captured in the interior of the continent are marched to the coastal Slave Castles that dot the Ghanaian coast. There they are held in dungeons before being shipped to the New World. The individuals that arrive at the Slave River have walked over 300 miles in shackles from the slave markets to the north. The weakened didn’t even make it this far. Instead, they were thrown into the Pra to drown. Here, the survivors have a brief respite from their inhumane journey, a chance to bathe one last time in their land of birth.
At the Slave River, the enslaved are bathed in order to look more presentable for the Europeans eager for purchase. They are auctioned to the highest bidder, branded with searing hot iron, and re-shackled for the 30 mile walk to the Cape Coast dungeons where they will be imprisoned before being crammed onto the ship that will sail them to the New World. It is in those dungeons where they are imprisoned on top of centuries worth of accrued human excrement.
That blunt narrative does not tell the full story of the place, or suggest the depth of the experience that visitors feel. This is sacred land. This is hallowed ground. This is solemn. This place makes humanity weep.
The motto of the Witness Tree Institute of Ghana is “Tete Wo Biribi Ka” – The past has something to say. At Slave River the past speaks loudly and with purpose. This history confronts you. It is impossible to look away. You breathe it. You feel it. You hear it.
The visitor’s journey to the river begins with taking off your shoes. This solemn ritual connects your feet to this hallowed ground and humbles the experience. During that walk, you hear the cries of the past - the metal clangs of the shackles, the wails of the souls that passed through, the screams caused by hot iron burning flesh, even the muted feeling of relief from a brief bathing respite. Those sounds beckon – never again.
When we reach the location of the Last Bath, we are challenged to make a wish into a leaf and drop the wish leaf into the current – A solemn act at a solemn site. The wish to remember this place, to learn from the past, to emancipate all from the slavery that stubbornly remains prevalent to this day in all places.
Rivers are always changing course and digging new channels. The challenge to humanity is to absorb that lesson from the river – that to fully consecrate this spot, we need to change. That remains our mission. That is our duty.
– Dave Duane