Global Ministries partnered with Lexington Theological Seminary for a Pilgrimage to Ghana Travel Seminar from Sept. 27-Oct. 5. This pilgrimage served as an expression of LTS’s commitment to the formation of students, clergy, and lay leaders who embody a deep understanding of our global realities, the interconnections of our lives, and the mission of the global church. The pilgrimage provided an opportunity to study the exponential growth of Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa, the efforts and challenges of contextualizing the gospel as an authentic expression of African faith and spirituality, and the opportunities and challenges currently facing theological education in the Ghanian context. There was also an opportunity to visit community-based projects of the Christian Council of Ghana related to interfaith dialogue, human trafficking, and economic justice.
Several of the travelers contributed blog posts we are sharing here. This one was written by Rev. Dr. Don Gillett II.
Day 5
Well into the fifth full day in Ghana, traveling from Cape Coast back to Accra, our delegates’ hearts were full!
Full of gratitude to their host, the Christian Council of Ghana and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana; for Dr. Joyce Steiner, Ms. Salome Kadi and Rev. Elizabeth Niobe-Wuasi. Full of thanksgiving for Global Ministries for partnering with the projects in the Eastern and Accra regions in Ghana and for the partnership with Lexington Theological Seminary in making this trip possible.
I would prefer to share something warm and fuzzy. However, today I must acknowledge my heart is full of an array of emotions following a tour to the Cape Coast Castle and Castle El Mina, where evil actions and injustices of humanity occurred in West. The slave trade experienced by Africans and their dependents for 400 years was fueled by evil and greed.
Words cannot express the reality I experienced being in the male and female dungeon below ground, situated under a church, where captured Africans were held, chained, and treated worse than animals until ships arrived to take them to plantations in the Caribbean, Americas, and Brazil. One particular male dungeon, a 16-x-32-foot room with little to no airflow, sunlight or amenities, held 200-plus men for 30 to 90 days. On a cool rainy day in Ghana, being in the dungeon was suffocating. I felt the pain of the Ancestors.
Words could not express the reality of the number of Ancestors who died on their way to being sold in the castle, or the three out of every ten that died inside the castle, or the thousands that died before making it to the ships, or the millions that died on board the ships. Yet there were Ancestors who had the courage to not go further than the castle and others who had the strength to fight through the horror of chattel slavery to create the Global African Diaspora.
I express these thoughts as I close out this blog:
- This is an experience/pilgrimage that everyone and especially those who are a part of the African Diaspora should experience.
- I continue to process my range of emotions, and I am glad I experienced it with a stellar group of colleagues: Our partner Salome Kadi with the Christian Council of Churches, Global Ministries, Dr. Kahala Cannon and Rebecca Chote and Lexington Theological Seminary representatives Dr. Charisse L. Gillett, Rev. Dr. Jon Barnes, Ms. Delores Yilibuw, Rev. Dikiea Elery and Rev. Don Chase.
“We had the land. They brought the Bible and taught us to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened our eyes, we had the Bible and they had the land.” – Unknown.