Slavery, Heritage and Tourism in Ghana

Summary This paper examines the past and present of the approximately 80 slave trade-related structures erected by Europeans on the shores of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Built between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, these monuments bear testimony to a shameful commerce in human beings, one that served to inextricably link the fate of peoples of three continents: Africa, the Americas and Europe. The meaning of these monuments remains powerful, bringing to Ghana and the slave forts a stream of tourists, primarily from Europe and the Americas, on a pilgrimage to view the virtual history of buyers, sellers and victims of the Atlantic Slave Trade.