Travelling, one accepts everything; indignation stays at home. One looks, one listens, one is roused to enthusiasm by the most dreadful things because they are new. Good travellers are heartless. - Elias Canetti

5 November 2019, Elmina
Akomapa Guest House 70GHC (R200)

WhatsApp: Photo of Charl getting his hair and beard cut for the first time in months. African-style with a naked razor blade held between thumb and comb. Tiny shop sporting couch and fan nestled between wooden shacks in the poorest part of Elmina.
Visited Elmina castle built 1482 by the Portuguese. They built it in record time having brought the pre-fabricated building blocks from Portugal. Initially to protect their gold trade, but later it became a staging post to which all branded slaves were brought from throughout west Africa before being shipped to the new world. Later conquered by the Dutch, then bought by the Brits after slavery was abolished. It is the oldest European structure south of the Sahara.