For our 4th anniversary we decided to take a trip to Keta and lodged at the Aborigines Beach Resort (will post a review of the place in another post), as part of the road trip we made a stop at Fort Prinzenstein (it’s a mouthful I know, I had to google to get the right spelling). Trust me! I was surprised to learn of the existence of a Fort in Keta. Never heard of it and doubt it was mentioned in any Social Studies class back in High School.
This Fort was built by the Danish and later taken over by the British (you can google or check Wikipedia for history and details).
These are the photos I took from the visit.
Discovered this on one of the streets! A street that silences the gossips, very interesting. Okro Mouth Close! paaa…….I was wondering whether it was mere coincidence but realised there was a shop next to it called Okro mouth.
Street to the left side of the Fort.
To get a guided tour, some payment is needed for citizens and tourists. We paid about GHS20 for both of us excluding the kids. According to the tour guide there are 68 forts in Africa with 64 in Ghana (I stand to be corrected if I misheard or if it was wrong apor).
Meet our tour guide.
The fort was built in 1784 and was a place where slaves were held prior to being shipped to the Caribbeans. Apparently, the place had no ventilation until provision was made for it in 1850.
With our “human handbags”
And our pictorial tour begins (free up your spirit of imagination)…………………………
First area you come across once you enter the ruins of the Fort.Where the slaves were usually lined up for identification purposes. A hot iron was usually used for this purpose. As it was difficult to know their ages, their teeth was used to estimate the ages of the slaves.The bath place of the female slaves. According to the guide, occasionally this same water was used as their drinking water.Up here was where the slave masters used to stand to watch the female slaves taking their bath. That was used as an opportunity to select which slaves should be sent to them for their sexual gratification.Tour guide explaining the story behind the stool. It belonged to one of the Anlo Chiefs (I think so)…………………………………..I missed the story just because the older “human handbag” aka The young Marathon “Rider” was on one of her tantrum sprees. Anyway if you have been there and know the story link up so I can update the post.Miniature of the complete Fort. I was yet to get an understanding of which parts were currently not affected by the sea erosion but we got more people joining the tour plus the “tantrum thrower” was at it. She wanted to take control of the camera…hmmmmmSome form of money back then……The skeletal remains of a Blue Whale. This was killed by the British.Yours truly……..OMT
Other informational pieces I captured (not so visible though)
And the tour continues………..
This was used to take the weights of the slaves. Looks like an old version of what my hospital uses sometimes 🙂Area where cooking was done.
Grinding stones
Section where cooking was done
Cooking area
This picture watermarking is slowing me down so here goes some free pics for your viewing:
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The strong slaves were kept here. There was no window or avenue for ventilation
In your opinion, does Fort Prinzenstein have tourist attraction potential?
Simple. Fun loving. Lady of few words. Wife. Mother. Daughter. Adventure seeker. Chartered Accountant. Freelance academic and technical writer. Freestyle blogger.
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