For over 400 years, there was a massive population shift from Africa to the Americas. The lowest estimated loss for the African population through the transatlantic slave trade is 20 million people.
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- The Triangular Trade, for slaves, guns and gold connected four continents.
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- Slave conditions were so inhumane that about a third of the slaves died before they even made it to the ships.
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- The slaves were forced into overcrowded underground dungeons. With the lack of toilets, the stench and disease were widespread.
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- Pushed through the “door of no return”, slaves were loaded like cargo onto big slaving ships, never to set foot in their homeland again.
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- Inside the dungeon, hundreds of clay head sculptures, each with a different face, show the despair and fear.
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- Never again.
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- Each red dress represents a female slave. They were chained together, in groups of five, by the neck.
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- The Governor, viewing the slaves from above, selected one to be his ‘mistress’ for the day. In return for the rape, the terrified woman received a proper meal and her first wash in months.
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- The Door of No Return monument in Benin, represents the path through which shuffled the majority of African slaves.
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- These men and women in chains could have been her ancestors. Think what the population of Africa would be now without losing 20 million people.
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- Punishment cell for those who dared to try escaping. Slaves were locked in without food or water, ignored until the cell was deathly quiet and the decaying bodies were removed.
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