Ruins of 'First English Slave Fort in Africa' Found Buried Under Another Fort Leaves Archaeologists Stunned

The slave trade was a heinous malpractice that relocated countless people from Africa across the ocean as slaves under British rule. In 2023, a team of experts managed to locate what they believed to be the first-ever English slave fort in Africa, stated BBC. The significant discovery was made in an excavation site in Ghana and several artifacts were unearthed indicating the existence of the slave fort in the region.

Christopher DeCorse, a lecturer and archaeologist from Syracuse University in America, showed the reporters from BBC the valuable finds from the excavation site. DeCorse discovered the jawbone of a goat, tobacco pipes, shattered earthenware, and gunflints which were used in vintage firearms. "Any archaeologist who says they are not delighted when they find something, are not being totally true," DeCorse told the news outlet, claiming that the remains found at the site were direct evidence of the first English outpost built in Africa. The fort was found amongst the ruins of Fort Amsterdam, near the shorelines of Ghana.

DeCorse and his team excavated what they believed to be the remains of an ancient fort called Kormantine which was hidden beneath the foundation of Fort Amsterdam. The name of the fort is tied to a neighboring town called Kormantse and some of the enslaved people in the Caribbean who started a slave rebellion later on were given the name, Coromantee. It was estimated that Fort Kormantine dates back to the 17th century and was built at the time when European settlers became interested in the slave trade instead of gold. The start of the slave trade majorly affected the coastal fishing communities of Ghana.

Several slave forts like these are scattered all across Ghana, which was formerly known as the Gold Coast. Fort Kormantine was built by the English back in 1631. Several local people were taken through them before they were sent across the sea. The English not only transported slaves and gold but valuable materials like ivory, too. Fort Kormantine was later taken over by Dutch folks from the English. These forts also served as temporary detention facilities for people who were abducted from various regions of West Africa before getting transported to the Caribbean to work on sugarcane plantations.  

"One of the factors that makes locating the Fort Kormantine's foundations interesting is the lack of information regarding the actual appearance of these early slave trafficking outposts," DeCorse mentioned. In recent times, the site was designated a United Nations World Heritage Site, which made the excavation work challenging. A Nigerian graduate student, Omokolade Omigbule, from the University of Virginia, participated in the excavation. "Being a part of such a dig transports me back a few hundred years, it feels like I was there," Omigbule revealed. 

The site also had a 20-foot wall, a door post, foundations, and a drainage system made out of red bricks. "The pipes' small bowls, where the tobacco was placed, are also extremely unique of the time that we are talking about here. As tobacco became less expensive and more widely available, the bowls grew larger over time," DeCorse talked about the artifacts they found at the site. The remains of goats and local animals proved how English settlers domesticated animals and used them as alternative sources of protein.