Gold. Ghana has always been known for its gold. For more a thousand years, the region enjoyed a reputation as one of the world’s richest sources of gold and by the ninth century, gold mined from its forests were already travelling north across the Sahara, supplying kingdoms and Mediterranean markets, and earning the coastline name Europeans would later immortalise as the Gold Coast.
In 1415, King John I of Portugal would invade Ceuta, a port on the Strait of Gibraltar and through it, discover a trans-Saharan caravan route used for transporting gold to the Mediterranean from Guinea. The conquest gave Portugal a glimpse into the immense wealth flowing into North Africa and further spurred its desire to explore the uncharted African western shores, ultimately leading to the discovery of Amankwaa Kurom or Elmina as it later came to be known.
In the early fifteenth century, under the patronage of Prince Henry the Navigator, Portugal began a series of maritime exploration, charging its ship to go further than the last journey. Although Prince Henry never sailed the coast himself, he consistently financed the voyages, some ending in disappointment while others led to unexpected discoveries.
By 1418, Portugal had managed to sail beyond Cape Non on the Atlantic coast, and kept approaching the formidable Cape Bojador which had long been regarded as impassable. In that same year, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, driven off course by a violent storm while attempting to round the cape, instead discovered Porto Santo, in the Madeira archipelago, about 40km northeast of Madeira itself. Soon afterwards, they successfully reached Madeira and extended Portugal’s influence there.
By 1434, Gil Eanes finally rounded Cape Bojador, eliminating their greatest barrier so far and continued their expedition down the coast. Each successful voyage encouraged another, carrying Portuguese ships farther down the western coast of Africa — as far as Sierra Leone, mapping out previously unknown stretches of coastline, establishing contact with coastal communities and gathering intelligence about the commerce.
In 1469, during the reign of King Afonso V, a merchant by the name Fernão Gomes managed to obtain an exclusive contract to conduct Portugal’s trade along the Guinea coast. In return, he paid the Crown 500 ducats and agreed to finance the exploration of 500 leagues of coastline during the period of his privilege. By the time John II ascended the Portuguese throne in 1481, the coastline stretching through the Gulf of Guinea, including the Bights of Benin and Biafra, had already been explored, and reports of extraordinary quantities of gold had begun reaching Lisbon.
In 1471, Portuguese navigators, João de Santarém and Pedro Escobar, reached the coastal kingdom of Ghana where gold was actively being traded in abundance, particularly A Mina/Elmina which literally tarsalates as ‘the mines’. If it dare be called greed, this advantageous discovery led the Portuguese to make a decision that would alter the trade narrative of the region. In an attempt to monopolise the trade in Elmina, King John sent an expedition comprising a squadron of ten caravels, two ship transports, about five hundred soldiers, two hundred labourers, prefabricated stone, and Don Diego d’Azambuja, who led the group. The order was clear, irrespective of whatever they faced, they were to establish a fortification — by force, if necessary. History tells us that when the expedition reached Elmina, they disembarked from their ship with a great deal of celebration, marched into the village, hosted the royal Portuguese banner on a tree, placed an altar under the shade of this tree, celebrated mass and offered prayers for the speedy conversion of the natives and the prosperity of the church they intended to establish.
Different narratives tell varying versions of the reactions of the natives present during all of these but one is continually retold — that the natives who were already accustomed to seeing the Portuguese arrive on their coast in the guise of traders,were unprepared for this sudden display of power, which they viewed with disbelief and distrust.
However, to build the establishment itself, the leader of the expedition, Azambuja, sought out the local ruler ‘Caramansa’ — a rendering of the Akan name and title of Kwamena Ansa. To Caramansa, Azambuja spoke of friendship, the greatness of the king of Portugal, and the blessings of commerce and Christianity, and asked permission to build a “house” on the shore.
Kwamena Ansa’s reply, as the chroniclers set it down, was courteous and sharp. He welcomed trade but distrusted permanence. Friends who met from time to time, he is said to have observed, kept their friendship warmer than neighbours living side by side, where daily proximity bred quarrels; a great stone house would make demands that a passing ship never could, and would be far harder to be rid of if the friendship soured. He was, in other words, not fooled.
Nevertheless, the Portuguese proceeded with their work, perhaps relying on the strength of the arms they carried, the perceived superiority of their race, and the strength of the expedition they had come with. In spite of this, the locals did not put up a fight — at least not until the Portuguese began quarrying a rock they regarded as sacred. Then, the locals took up arms against them and despite the strength they had displayed, many of the Portuguese soldiers were wounded.
In response, instead of resorting to arms, Azambuja, resorted to appeasing the people, presenting gifts and making excuses with the understanding that they needed to be more agreeable for future relationships. The fortification was eventually completed and was given the name São Jorge da Mina, meaning St. George of the Mine, in recognition of the gold that had attracted the Portuguese. By 1486, the castle had been fully constructed, retaining the plan with which it had originally been designed. Its position was also carefully chosen. The Portuguese established it upon the end of a narrow headland, bounded on one side by the Atlantic and on the other by the Benya River. The site therefore provided a naturally protected harbour from which the Portuguese could conduct and protect their trade.
Castelo de São Jorge da Mina — St. George of the Mine, named for the patron saint of Portugal — was the first fortified European trade post in sub-Saharan Africa, and it remains the oldest surviving European building south of the Sahara. For its first century and a half it did what it was built to do: it moved gold.
Trade Monopoly at Elmina and What it Later Became
It is crucial to state that the construction of São Jorge da Mina was only possible after Fernão Gomes’ contract ended in 1474. After the end of the contract, trade on the Guinea Coast came directly under a royal monopoly under King John. To give the Crown’s claim a more formal standing, the title “Lord of Guinea” was added to the titles of King John, and Mina itself was raised to city status. With these actions, Portugal had brilliantly turned the coastal settlement into the centre of a royal enterprise and created a system that could regulate who had access to Elmina’s gold.
The trading activities of the Portuguese gradually grew within Elmina as the natives relied solely on trade and barter and therefore traded anything they desired with gold — perishable or not. The Portuguese, in turn, brought large quantities of goods they believed would attract the people, including used and unused clothing, Moroccan linen, blankets, bracelets and kettles. These were exchanged for gold dust and valuable ornaments from the natives. Cloth, in particular, became central to this trade, so much so that by the beginning of the sixteenth century, a Portuguese trading agent maintained a large shop at Elmina specifically for old linen.
As the trade expanded, other commodities and people also became part of the system and the walls that had stored gold began to store human beings. This occurred around the sixteenth century when labour became a need. The quantities of European goods being brought into Elmina could not remain at the coast. They had to be conveyed into the mainland, while gold, ivory and other African products had to be brought from the interior to the port. This created a demand for people who could carry the goods between the coast and the inland trading communities. To fulfil this demand, slaves from different areas, including Dahomey, were transported to Elmina to move goods.
The slave trade became so important to the economy of the Guinea Coast and that of Dahomey such that the King of the Dahomean state actively participated in the commerce, going as far as establishing a census system. Every year, a nationwide census was conducted with two appointed officials counting all slaves and captives and providing a report in order to obtain a total figure of the kingdom. The manner in which these figures were kept is particularly interesting. Census figures collected from different villages were placed in four large bags while three additional sacks were used to distinguish different categories of people. One, coloured black, represented those who had been killed in battle. Another, coloured red, recorded those who had died from illness. The third, coloured white, represented captives.
However, sometime around 1637, the Dutch drove the Portuguese away from the gold coast and took over trading activities. After the Dutch seized the castle in 1637 its purpose shifted decisively; its storerooms became dungeons, and its seaward gate became one of the most infamous “Doors of No Return” on the coast, through which tens of thousands passed each year at the height of the slave trade. Kwamena Ansa’s instinct, that a permanent European house would one day bring what no passing ship could, proved exactly and rather tragically right.
Impact of the Elmina Castle
The story of the castle at Elmina does not end with the Portuguese or even the Dutch. Over the following years and eventually, centuries, the castle served different purposes, leaving an indelible mark on the people of Elmina and the Gold Coast. In 1872, the British took control of the castle right after the Dutch transferred their possessions on the Gold Coast to Britain. Under British rule, the castle served many purposes, including as the Ghana Police Recruit Training Centre. In 1972, the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board took over its management, and the site was later included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List as part of Ghana’s forts and castles. Currently, it serves as a host of historical exhibitions that tell the story of the town it was founded in.
The name Elmina has traveled across the Atlantic, along with the Africans who were shipped from its shores. In the Caribbean and parts of South America, for instance, the name became associated with what came to be known as the “Mina Nations”. These were not nations in the modern political sense but ethnic associations formed within the African diaspora. They served as social and cultural organisations through which people preserved aspects of the languages, traditions, artistic practices, religious beliefs and ancestral identities they had carried from West Africa.
The presence of the Europeans on Elmina’s soil also introduced changes within the town itself. A particularly significant one was in education. Before the Europeans came, education in Elmina was largely informal. After Portugal’s arrival, King John introduced a form of education, directing his representatives to teach the sons of Africans living within the region how to read and write, as well as to sing and pray. Eventually, schools and churches were established and for the first time, African traditional practices faced a sustained challenge from European Christianity. According to an account by Portugal's Diego de Alvarenga, in 1503 a Portuguese missionary converted and baptised the paramount chief of the Efutu kingdom on the Mina Coast together with about 300 of his subjects. The conversion was followed by a physical presence for the new religion. The chief permitted the Portuguese to construct a church on a hill opposite São Jorge da Mina. The site was dedicated to the Portuguese saint, Jago. The church stood quite close to the castle that had been built to secure Portugal's commercial interests, creating another visible sign of the changing character of Elmina.
The economic benefits enjoyed through the trade at Elmina also goes without saying. Between 1490 and 1560, nearly 1,000 kilograms of gold were reportedly exported from Mina to Portugal. If it had been in today’s world, the scale of this trade would have been considerable enough for the Gold Coast to become an important source of gold within the international economy. By the beginning of the sixteenth century, estimates placed the Portuguese Gold Coast trade at around ten percent of the world's known gold supply.
In 1672, gold exports by the English Royal African Company contributed to the English gold coins minted in Guinea. These carried the name, ‘Guinea,’ a name that would eventually become attached to the British currency denomination and later to the country that emerged from the former Gold Coast.
The Elmina Slave Trade
By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European merchants turned their trade goals away from strictly gold to slave trade. They became interested in young and able-bodied Africans and began to capture and sell them. The commercial system that had developed along the coast increasingly connected the interior to the Atlantic world, with captives being moved from one market to another before reaching the coastal forts and castles from which they were shipped across the Atlantic.
The process was rigorous and cruel. A person captured in the interior could be sold to another trader, resold again further along the route and eventually brought to a coastal market where European merchants purchased the captive for shipment overseas.
The consequences for African societies were severe. The removal of large numbers of young and able-bodied people meant that labour was being taken away from agriculture and other productive activities. Communities were not simply losing individuals; they were losing people who would otherwise have farmed, raised families, defended communities and contributed to the economic life of their societies.
African political figures who dared to rise in opposition to the British government were also detained at Elmina’s castle. One of the most notable was Nana Akwasi Agyeman Prempeh I, the Asantehene. Born in 1872, Prempeh became ruler of the Asante kingdom while still very young. In 1896, the British arrested him and held him at Elmina Castle before eventually sending him into exile.
And then there was the doorway through which another generation of Africans passed. On the seaward side of the castle is a doorway, now popularly remembered as the “Door of No Return”. Enslaved Africans were often taken from the dungeons, through this entrance, and towards the ships waiting offshore before being transported across the Atlantic.
For those who passed through it, there was no certainty of seeing their homes again. Beyond the doorway was the Atlantic and, beyond it, the Americas. The castle had therefore acquired several meanings that were almost impossible to reconcile. To the Portuguese Crown, it had been a fortress built to protect gold. To merchants, it was a trading station. To missionaries, it became a centre from which Christianity could be spread. To the British, it later became a military and administrative establishment and a prison for African resistance leaders. To the African diaspora, it became one of the places associated with the forced departure of their ancestors.
Centuries later, Elmina’s walls have become a physical record of the different forces that connected Elmina to Africa and the wider world.
