Mariah Young-Jones
Africa House Fellow 2015
Ghana and Senegal
Hello Internet World! My name is Mariah and I’m a rising senior at Gallatin studying Legacies of Race and Empire.
When I first heard about the Africa House Fellowship, the earliest stages of my project quickly began to take shape. Fueled by a long-time fascination with the European forts and castles that are dotted along the West African coast (“slave castles,” as they’re often called), I knew that I wanted to center my research around these historical sites as contested spaces.
With one of the highest concentrations of slave castles in West Africa, as well as recognition from UNESCO as being home to World Heritage Sites, Ghana was an obvious destination. I have been in Ghana for about a week (at the time of writing this blog post) and will travel westward along the coast for another three.
After about a month in Ghana, I will head to Senegal for a week. My decision to go to Senegal centers around Dakar’s Isle de Gorée or Gorée Island. Once considered a supposed hub for slave trade, it has recently come under scrutiny by academics who are beginning to question its actual historical significance in the Atlantic slave trade. It is nonetheless a major tourist attraction for Senegal’s capital.
Though I initially wanted to center my research around the slave castle tourism industry (and to what extent it can be understood as an industry), I’ve begun to see the slave forts and castles as part of a much greater contested narrative between people and governments on either side of the Atlantic that are informed by a number of complex historical, cultural, political, and economic conditions.
My research has thus involved analyzing closely the way that these forts and castles have been preserved and restored, what they are being used for, how the Ghanaian and Senegalese governments seek to represent them and their histories, and how those of the African diaspora would like to see them preserved and represented.
My plan is to collect some qualitative data, such as entrance fees, number of tourists at each site, and condition of the forts/castles to add concrete knowledge to my study.
In addition, I’m framing my research with a number of broader questions. I’ve been asking government officials, tour guides, professors, and tourists the following: What is the national narrative surrounding the slave trade and slave history? How do you think the legacy of colonialism has affected these narratives? How do you personally feel the forts and castles should be preserved? What are tourists’ expectations when visiting these forts? What are some of the political, cultural, and economic barriers that stand in the way of easing the tensions between local people and people of the African diaspora?
I will return with some updates in a couple weeks as my trip and research progress. I can’t wait to see what I will uncover.