Ghana, Four Hundred Years, "The Year of Return"

From BBC World Service Radio, Boston Calling, 400 Years

"This year marks four hundred years since slave traders arrived at the Virginia colony with the first captive Africans to be enslaved in what would become the US. It was the start of something that would come to define and divide America. Ghana has declared 2019 the “Year of Return” for African descendants around the globe. Reporter Rupa Shenoy, traveled to Ghana to look at how slavery is entangled in both the past and present lives of people there and in the African diaspora"- BBC


Related, an old song:


Fort Elmina Blues


They took me down to Fort Elmina,
The meanest place I’ve ever seen.

They took me down to Fort Elmina,
The meanest place I’ve ever seen.


They threw me in a dark old dungeon,
The walls were thick, (I) couldn’t see the sun.


The ocean’s roar can’t hide our cries,
As one more slave amongst us dies.


The floor is wet, the floor is foul,
A new-born babe begins to howl.


Cape Coast is worse, the rumours say,
But if I could change, I’d go today.


The ship came in, after three long months,
They packed us in, they chained us down.


I said farewell to Fort Elmina,
The prettiest sight I’ve ever seen.


I said farewell to Fort Elmina,
The prettiest sight I’ve ever seen.