PROLOGUE
Africa south of the burning –hot Sahara was little known by the Europeans at the turn of the first millennium. The Arab North Africa across the Mediterranean Sea were their close cross-over links to the dark continent
Around the years AD 800, people called the Vikings lived in Northern Europe. They were adventurous sailors who depended on the sea for living. They were also fierce warriors reputed to engage even in acts of piracy. They travelled along the western coasts of Europe to trade but often raided settlements for treasure loot and even carry off human captives as slaves. There ships were called long ships. From the 1400 ’s, European explorers sailed down the coasts of Africa, mainly along the west side of the mainland. Traders followed in the 1500 ’s, with the Portuguese in the frontier.
Sometime in this soup cauldron arrived the blood of the Vikings. The Swedes and the Danes found foot on me led by a Dutchman. Osu, in Accra, then Gold Coast, here they come
Let me try to reveal just 44 years of my life with the Danes from 1650 to 1694, but then seriously? Our relationship lasted for 200 years until 1850 when the Brits bought all Danmark (as it was then called) possessions in the Gold Coast (as it was then called). We live to see and may be become seers of life
Can a mother forget her child? Maybe, but you can be sure that I cannot forget my mother. My mother is the land of Gold Coast, and I am her favorite daughter, albeit not the eldest, Elmina.
Let me draw you to myself. I was not born. You are right, I am not a living being. Howbeit, it is the living that lives in me. Like all edifices, my existence is derived from my grounds, the soil and the space near the sea.
The Europeans came for me along the Atlantic Ocean in strange vessels. It all started with the Portuguese in 1550 when their black boots stepped on my belly. With stones, sand, mortar, cement and wood, they erected pillars, rooms, walls and stairs. A stockade of timber surrounded me. I became their concubine. Trade became my bread but then matters went dull, and they relocated to Elmina.
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Exactly a hundred years later, I got a new husband. Commander Henry Caerlof, a Dutchman arrived with his sailors in their naval frigate flying the flag of Sweden. Merry men indeed with their wine and brandy in caskets.
Then after two years he went back home. Happily he returned in 1657 in a better schooner flying the flag of Danmark, (as it was then called). He easily took me over from the Portuguese. The Danes, so calm and lovely unlike the boisterous Portuguese.
He built me up into a small fortified lodge. We became prosperous which enable him to obtain additional lands and grounds. He expanded my storage vaults to bulge my stomach and fortified my battlements to strengthen my shoulders.
Our marriage blossomed and my stature mushroomed with a blessing and a new name of Fort Christiansborg. Sadly I lost my beloved in 1679. He was murdered in cold blood by his Greek assistant commander Bolten.
Naturally bad news travel faster which led to decline in trade and morale among my people. Then my first love returned. The Portuguese again! Captain Juliano de Campus Barreto bought and paid the dowry for my hand. He changed my name to Fort Sâo Francisco Xavier in honour of the catholic missionary Francis Xavier.
The goodly captain built a chapel in me and raised up my bastions by three feet. I had obtained a new god and naturally became confused as a teenager. Then tragedy struck again. The cold icy hands of mutiny caught his people. On a gloomy sunset on 29th August, 1682, he abandoned me and set sail west to fort Elmina, where my senior cousin resides.
However I did not remain a widow for long. Gratefully; my old flame the Danes bought me in February, 1683 from the Portuguese. The Danes fed me comfortable and plump. They turned me majestic in 1685 with a grand wedding to become the capital of Danish Gold Coast. In attendance were more of their kin from my cousin Fort Fredriskborg at Princesstown. Of course their Dutch and Portuguese cousins were not left out as custom demands and requires. It is well with me.
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Yet this my story must end in 1694. It was late in 1693 that I was conquered by my own black people. Prince Asamani descended from the Akwamu mountains, disguised as merchants and made me his concubine.
And so for a year, he traded successfully with other merchants and the sea world. We prospered just like before by the Europeans. However he could not hold on to me due to jealousy and rivalry.
The Danes bought me back in 1694. And so unfolds the first phase of the life and saga of lady Christiansborg.
