The Salaga Slave Market

Historical fact, regardless of efforts to sweep it under the carpet cannot be possible. No one can alter the course history took. Some have tried, though with futility, to rewrite history when such historical phenomenon has left indelible blot on the conscience of the perpetrators by leaving in its wake disastrous effects on its victims and humanity.

One of such unfortunate instances in the history of humanity is the slave trade. Trade in human as merchandise as well as perpetrators of this obnoxious act of atrocity by man against man should attract the condemnation of human rights activists and any person of scruples.

The West, by all measure, was the beneficiary of the slave trade. However, one cannot deny the fact that they had indigenous Africans as collaborators.

Centres designated for buying and selling of human being to be transported across the Atlantic to work on plantations in the New World (America) and the West Indies are some of the landmarks that show the roles played by the locals. They facilitated the capture of their kind for sale at these centres.  

One such centre in the East Gonja District in the Northern Region of Ghana is the Salaga Slave Market. Salaga served as a key market town mainly for the busy regional slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries. Whosoever controls Salaga therefore meant having an upper hand in slave trade to the North and South of the Gold Coast. The chiefs who were controlling the township for that matter became the main sources of supply of slaves to buyers.

Unlike the fortes and castles which have dungeons for keeping slaves, due to the lack of storage facilities to keep the slaves in Salaga, they were taken upon arrival to the market square where they were shackled and displayed as merchandise waiting to be sold and transported across the Atlantic. 

Amazingly, the trade in slaves was not done with physical cash as money was then not in circulation in that part of the world. It was a pure barter trade where humans were exchanged with other commodities such as gunpowder and guns. Ludicrously, there was a chief who gave out a sizable number of slaves for a dressing mirror in return.

One unique feature of the Salaga slave market is the baobab tree in the middle of the market where the slave masters dumped dead slaves. In effect, the baobab tree served as a cemetery for the unfortunate slaves who kicked the bucket whilst on transit.

an artistic portrait of the original Salaga slave market

Salaga Slave Market is now a tourist attraction centre. Unfortunately, some of the relics and artefacts are in the possession of individual members of the community.

References

Ghana Tourist Authority

www.dearghana.com

www.ghana.travel