Barbadian-Ghanaian bridge over the Atlantic
By George Alleyne
In a moving symbolic ceremony
Barbadians have reconnected
ancestors who left the
west African coast as captives
and served as slaves for over
300 years when remains from
one of the island’s cemeteries
was taken back and interred in
Ghana.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley
in mid-November led a team to
Ghana, from where many captured
Africans were sent to the
Caribbean, Brazil, and southern
United States beginning in
the 16th Century, and handed
over to Ghanaians soil taken
from a slave burial ground, in
Newton Plantation.
The Newton Slave Burial
Ground is a 4,500 square
metres area in the plantation
in which an estimated 570
slaves were buried here, some
in low earthen mounds, others
in non-mound graves.
Though described as ancestral
remains, the Barbados
package to Ghana comprised
only soil from this hallowed
ground as authorities wanted
no defilement of the bones
belonging to those forced into
the indignity of slavery.
The Barbados repatriation
package was handed over the
officials in Ghana who buried it
in Assin Manso, the location of
a Cape Coast market for trading
in captured Africans and
a cemetery for those who did
survive the early brutality prior
to the trans-Atlantic journey.
Former American slave,
Samuel Carson, and former
Jamaican slave, Crystal, were
reportedly re-buried here previously.
In this zone there is also
the Slave River where those
captured on inland areas of the
continent received their last
bath before taking the horrendous
journey across the sea,
a precursor to the horrors of
slavery.
In the vicinity of Assin
Manso and along the shore are
also a number of forts and castles,
used to facilitate the trade
in Africans.
“We have bridged the Atlantic
Ocean,” on the first day
of the two-day visit when the
ancestral remains were buried.
“We bridged the Atlantic
Ocean by the depth of passion
in our hearts, by the commitment
to be able to build and
Caribbean L 20 ife, DECEMBER 6-12, 2019
work together and by understanding
that our values and
culture are the same.”
Against the backdrop of air
services agreements signed
between Ghana and a number
of Caribbean states, when President
Nana Akufo-Addo visited
the region earlier this year, Mottley
pointed out that the shortest
distance between Ghana
and Barbados is a straight line
across the Atlantic, and said,
“we shall no longer want to go
north but work with each other
because … of the blood that
runs in our veins.”
As it stands now, a Caribbean
person wishing to visit
Ghana or any west African
state must undertake an estimated
38-hour trip through
either a north American or UK
airport.
But the estimated time
would be eight hours whenever
direct flights from the Caribbean
to the African west coast
begin.
“This for us will be the first
step because it’s going to be a
long journey together,” she said
of her visit to Ghana, leading
Barbadian cultural and business
representatives.
Putting real meaning
beyond symbolism of the visit,
Barbados and Ghanaian foreign
ministers signed memoranda
of understanding paving
the way for trade between the
countries’ ports and for the
island’s recruitment of between
100 and 120 nurses from the
west African state.
Ghanaians taking remains from Barbados’ Newton Slave
Burial Ground for interment at Assin Manso. The remains
are draped in the Barbados fl ag. Mia Mottley Facebook
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