BEFORE YOU WATCH: Impact of the Slave Trade - Through a Ghanaian Lens

Before you watch

While you watch

1. How do Ato Ashun and Trevor Getz describe society around Cape Coast prior to the Atlantic slave trade?
2. What does the physical structure of Cape Coast Castle under the British, including its dungeons, tell us about the Atlantic slave trade?
3. What, according to Ato Ashun, were some of the economic impacts of the Atlantic slaving system on the coastal region?
4. According to Akosua Perbi, how did the Atlantic slaving system affect how people lived?
5. What impacts of the Atlantic slaving system does Wilhelmina Donkoh focus on in her interview?
6. How does Ato Ashun say that the evidence of the Atlantic slave trade, in the dungeons of Cape Coast Castle, affected him personally?

After you watch

1. What evidence does this video provide to explain changes and continuities in systems of slavery in the period from 1450 to 1750?
2. How did the Atlantic slave trade affect Ghana, in terms of social interactions and organization as well as economic systems? Do you think these effects were the same in other regions of Africa? Why or why not?
3. If you were a guide for tourists visiting Cape Coast Castle, what would you want them to know?