A visit to Ghana offers a profound opportunity to connect with the roots of the African diaspora. One of the major highlights you should include on your itinerary is a visit to the Assin Manso Slave Market. Over here, you will have a very spiritual and awakening journey.
Assin Manso Ancestral Slave Market and River was one of the largest slave markets for gathering people who were sold into slavery during the infamous trans-Atlantic slave trade. This place is worth seeing as a prelude to viewing Elmina and Cape Coast slave dungeons since you will be following the route taken by the ancestors of many African Americans.
Nestled about 40 km from the Cape Coast-Kumasi highway in Ghana’s Central Region, Assin Manso, also known as Donkor Nsuo or Nnonkonsuo, was a major slave processing site during the transatlantic slave trade. Enslaved individuals from northern Ghana and beyond were brought here to rest, be sorted, branded, and take their “last bath” in African waters before being marched to coastal castles.
Here, they were well fed and rested for several days or weeks. Captured Africans were allowed to recuperate there after their long journey. The merchants knew they could guarantee higher prices if they appeared healthy and strong.
The Significance of the "Last Bath"
One of the most poignant aspects of Assin Manso is the slave river, known as the “Ndonkosuo”, that was where, the slaves had their last bath in a stream. Also you will trend the path to see the slave river on a bare foot. The significance of this is to show respect to the ancestors who went through the perilous journey and lost their precious lives and also to connect to the motherland.
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After touring Elmina Slave Castle and Cape Coast, we went to Donkor Nsuo (The Slave River) in Assin Manso. According to Kofi, the prophet who educated us about the history of Donkor Nsuo, the Slave River is the last place that our ancestors were brought to before the final trek to the slave dungeons in preparation to be shipped out like cattle. The strong captives, men and women somehow managed to endure the 600 mile, six month journey in shackles, barefoot, and scantily clad through dense forest terrain and its many creatures before finally arriving at Assin Manso.
Kofi also informed us that Donkor Nsuo is where the weak and sick would be killed and buried or thrown into the river to drown because they were unsellable or simply could not continue the journey. The other surviving prisoners were given food, not for humane reasons, but because they were extremely frail and were not aesthetically pleasing. It was necessary for them to be fattened up for the marketplace. Broken glass pieces were the razors that were used to shave their matted hair. They were then given their last bath in the river to remove some of the stench from six months of urination, defecation, menses, caked on dirt, blood from injury, sweat and tears.
According to Rabbi Kohain Halevi, a board member of the Diaspora African Forum, one place he takes visitors is the Assin Manso Slave River site, where Africans from various parts of the continent had their "last bath" on their native land before being sold into servitude. Halevi tells tourists, "Our ancestors believe if you walked barefoot with it, you're connected all the time with its strength and its power." "How many people will lay on this ground to get the strength of mother earth back in your body. That's where the strength comes from. … We take our shoes off at the river, bathe in the river," he added.
Near the journey's end in Ghana, the captives were given a last, ritual bath in a river before being sold. Today, the Assin Manso site is a sacred place of remembrance.
The “First Bath of Return” Rites at the ‘Nnonko nsuo’ or slave river is a rite that will stay with you for the rest of your life. This is a spiritual and awakening journey that every person in the diaspora is supposed to take. This is part of the spiritual and birth-right journey into the motherland and discovering your Roots.
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As we looped back towards the entrance, we came upon a wall full of images of our people; their past, present and our future. From the wall, we came back under the bamboo arch that was now lined with stone statues of fertility, which reminds us to always look towards the future generations and the infinite possibilities that it brings.
EMANCIPATION: SAD STORY OF OUR ANCESTORS AT ASSIN MANSO SLAVE RIVER
Reburial of Diasporas
Over here you will discover the grave and the remains of 2 diasporas (Lady Crystal from Jamaica and Carson from New York) who were returned and re-buried as well as the remains that were brought into the country from the Eastern Caribbean Island of Barbados in 2019. In 1998, the site received renewed international attention with the symbolic reburial of two returnees one from Jamaica, one from New York.
Personal Reflections and the Call to Return
I came home to Africa not knowing that I was going to grieve the loss of my ancestors. I came home because the Motherland was calling me and I had to obey. I was aware that I was bringing my ancestors back home with me, but I could not fathom the healing that would take place as a result of my obedience. I have done what I came to do. This trip has certainly been a journey. It has been a physical journey, a spiritual journey, and a journey of self awareness. I am consumed with so many emotions. I am overjoyed and I am sad. I see the resilience in the people and I feel their love.
Actor Boris Kodjoe speaks to "Nightline" about visiting the slave castles in Ghana, and the impact it had on him. The 47-year-old actor, who was born in Vienna to a Ghanaian father and Austrian mother, co-founded the Essence Full Circle Festival in 2018, which coordinates trips for descendants of slaves to visit and invest in Africa. For him, the mission was personal. He says, "When you walk the paths of the dungeons at these slave castles, whether it's Elmina or Cape Coast, you feel the spirits of your ancestors," Kodjoe said. "You feel the suffering and the pain and just the atrocities that took place there, and you realize at that moment that you're not a descendant of slaves, but you're a descendant of survivors."
Ghana has been the gateway for millions of Africans who were taken away from this soil," said Rabbi Kohain Halevi, of the Diaspora African Forum, which in part helps to connect visitors to their ancestral history. "That's why they say it's the 'Door of No Return,' because they believed at that time that if they erased all these things from ourselves, that we'd never find our way back home," Halevi said.
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We are inviting everyone in the diaspora to take this pilgrim and visit Ghana the motherland. Feel free to connect and send us your travel questions related to visiting Ghana.
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