Renowned businessman and politician Kennedy Ohene Agyapong has urged government to privatize the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles – he will buy and refurbish it.
He claims he feels sadden by the current state of the two tourist sites.
The Member of Parliament for Assin Central in the Central Region, said government should sell Cape Coast and Elmina Castles to him, because “I’m challenging the Regional House of Chiefs, people of Central Region and CEDECOM to sell to me both Cape Coast and Elmina Castles on just one condition, we will take pictures of the tunnel leading to the sea and then we will open up that tunnel for people to walk through it, we will put a ship or build a big restaurant on the sea, its simple, you write point of no return.”
The maverick Ghanaian politician continued, “I get time anytime I see the castle been wasted away and I will reap more cash than the House of Chiefs and CEDECOM will get if they agree to sell it to me. The era of people explaining the conditions in which the slaves were sold is over, plays will be enacted to the tourists when they visit the castles and charge from $100 upwards. That is how we are going to make money”,
The Elmina Castle was erected by the Portuguese in 1482 purposely for trade settlement.
The Cape Coast Castle was also built by European traders for trade in timber and gold but later used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Later, the two castles were used to hold slaves before they were loaded onto ships and sold in the Americas, especially the Caribbean.
This “gate of no return” was the last stop before crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
In modern day Ghana. both the Cape Coast, Elmina and other castles Built by the Europeans serves as tourist attraction sites.
