Day 4: Kakum, Monkey Forest Sanctuary and Elmina

Turtles at the Monkey Forest Sanctuary

One of the notions that I had about going to Africa was that I was going to go into the jungle. We had planned to go into one of the national parks and to take a serious tour to see the wild life. So I got a complete set of tropical gear – a full survival kit. My equipment ranged from water purifiers and GPS devices to specialized clothing and a first aid kit that could supply a platoon. I wasn’t just ready for a walk in the jungle – I had the gear for prolonged jungle warfare. As it turned out, it was completely silly and none of my gear was needed at all. I could have handled my full jungle adventures wearing only a pair of boxer shorts.

We had early on decided to visit Kakum, the national park near Cape Coast. Unlike the big (and practically unreachable) Mole park in the north that has grassy plains and big animals, Kakum is a real tropical jungle. It is impenetrable with dense vegetation and with much fewer large animals. The main attraction of Kakum is their canopy tour where you through a series of hanging ‘bridges’ (in the words’ most general meaning) can look at the tree tops from above. It was built by a group of Canadians and the ‘bridges’ consist of connected planks with a railing made of rope. They are not very stable and move around when you walk on them and when several people walk on them you get some very strange and unpredictable oscillations. The width of the planks is just enough so that you can put down your feet.

The canopy tour at Kakum

It is possible that there was something interesting to see in the canopies but apart from the impressive heights of the trees I did not notice too much. Normally I am not afraid of heights but this time I was not comfortable. All my energy and my focus went on just crossing the bridge that I was on and reaching the next platform.

It's pretty high up...

There was a guy in our guided group who was terrified of heights, but he soldiered on and managed to cross the bridges without causing any delays to the rest of us. The canopy tour included a walk up a hill and down the same way which was interesting as we got to see some interesting insects.

After the canopy tour we had the choice of going for a jungle walk but we opted to visit the Monkey Forest Resort animal sanctuary nearby. And there endeth my jungle adventures.

About 3 km from Kakum a Dutch couple started an animal sanctuary with monkeys being the main attraction. Among the animals that can be found are crocodiles, civic cats, turtles and of course monkeys.

Civic cat

We got a very interesting guided tour of the whole place before we got up close and personal with the monkeys. Especially fun was a small mona monkey called Max, who we got to feed and play around with. There were other interesting monkeys - among them a couple spot nosed monkeys
that tried to steal stuff from my pockets.

Max the mona monkey with the owner of the sanctuary

The sanctuary was probably the single best place that I visited in Ghana during my stay. And it was not because of the animals or the interesting tour given by the owner. This place embodied what was generally lacking in Ghana: a desire to create and improve. The owners built the place from scratch, starting with nearly nothing. They are now getting wind turbines to provide independent electricity to the place. They are also planning to build a small hotel, powered entirely by wind power and solar cells.
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Spot nosed monkey and kleptomaniac

A bar on the top of the hill is planned where visitors will be enjoying a spectacular view of the Kakum park and the surroundings. And these people built it all from scratch driven by a desire to create and to improve. Sadly every such project that you see in Ghana is run by westerners. And it’s not that the locals don’t have the means to do it, there just seems to be a complete lack of interest. Until they develop their entrepreneurship a step above selling pineapples on the street, Ghana is going nowhere. Poverty is an effect and not a cause.

Cocoa pod

The owner had been in Ghana for four years now and while he had gotten used to the Ghana Maybe Time he confessed to longing for western food, specifically sauerkraut and Big Macs. In the restaurant they were going to build he promised there would be no banku and no fufu.
In the afternoon we returned to Cape Coast and after lunch we set of to Elmina to see Ghana’s largest slave fort.

Elmina panorama seen from the fort

The slave trade is a dark and twisted story which is nearly as shameful and embarrassing to all involved. When the Europeans came to Africa, they plugged in to an existing trade and as with everything else made an industry out of it. Africa has always been characterized by tribalism and traditionally in tribal warfare the loser is enslaved by the winner. The European slave traders were at the end of the supply chain. Africans sold other Africans to the Europeans in exchange for tobacco and other goods. The European presence was limited to a number of forts across the coast, which were trading points and distribution centrals for the slave trade. The locals in Cape Coast and Elmina were not taken as slaves – on the contrary, they were knee deep in the sales and made huge profits as middle men. The only threat to a European nation’s slave trade was if another European nation wanted to muscle in on its territory. When the slave trade ended it was not because popular resentment from the Africans but because of a change in European profit margins.

The Elmina fort was founded by the Portuguese in the 15th century as a center for gold trade. It means literally “the mine”. When slave trade became more profitable as Europe colonialized the world, the Portuguese converted Elmina into a slave fort. After a while the Dutch muscled in on the trade and kicked out the Portuguese.

The Elmina fort

The British tried to take Elmina a couple of times but failed. After the slave trade had been abolished, the Dutch sold Elmina to the British.

The fortress itself is impressive – it gives the place an almost Caribbean look. We took a guided tour and were shown the various parts of the fort, including the slave holding cells. The height of irony was a prominent plaque on the main courtyard dedicated to a Dutch governor of the fort that died of malaria while in Elmina. During the slave trade 12 million people came to Elmina as slaves. Four million survived, eight perished.

Elmina village

After the tour we watched a group of performers practice drum playing and dancing next to the fort. Elmina is a traditional African fishing village and walking around it was an interesting experience. In the evening we returned to Cape Coast.

Drumming performance