Wonders of the African World - Episodes - Slave Kingdoms

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Poku on Ashanti Role in Slave Trade
At the court of the Asantehene (Ashanti king) in Ghana, Gates interviews Oheneba Adusei Poku, the Asantehene's son as he explains the Ashanti role in the transatlantic slave trade. (Watch video...)

Growing Up in Kumasi by Kwame Anthony Appiah
My first memories are of a place called "Mbrom," a small neighborhood in Kumasi, capital of Asante, as that kingdom turned from being part of the British Gold Coast colony to being a region of the Republic of Ghana. Our home was opposite my grandparent's house -- where scores of her kinsfolk and dependents lived under the direction of my step-grandmother, "Auntie Jane," who baked bread for hundreds of people from Mbrom and the surrounding areas -- down the street from many cousins of various, usually obscure, degrees of affinity. Near the center of the second largest city in Ghana, behind our hibiscus hedge in the "garden city of West Africa," our life was essentially a village life, lived among a few hundred neighbors; out from that village we went to the other little villages that make up the city. (Continue...)

Martine de Souza, Descendent of Slave Trader
At the de Souza family compund in Ouidah, Republic of Benin, Gates talks with Martine de Souza. Martine is a descendant of Francisco de Souza, the infamous 19th century Brazilian slave trader and Viceroy of Ouidah. Here, she explains her regrets about the slave trade and the effect of having such an infamous name. (Watch video...)

African-American Perspectives
African-Americans who visit Africa often simultaneously confront a wide range of feelings during their pilgrimage: a sense of at finally arriving "home," grief and horror at the kidnapping and enslavement of their ancestors, resentment and betrayal at the role that some Africans played in the slave trade, and surprise at how much -- and how little -- they have in common with the inhabitants of their motherland. From Richard Wright to Louis Farrakhan, the experiences are as diverse and numerous as the African Americans who recount them.

Black Power by Richard Wright
I pushed forward in the dark, down lanes of women sitting besides their boxes, their faces lit by flickering candles. As I stayed on I heard the sound of drums. Yes; I'd find them... Guided by the throbbing vibrations, I went forward until I came to a vast concrete enclosure. The drums were beating behind that high wall... Could I get in? (Continue...)
An Apology in Ghana: chiefs offer atonement for forefathers' support of the kidnappings of people for the slave trade by Renee Kemp
I traveled to Ghana last year to attend Panafest, a biennial conference held in the hope of bringing the diaspora back to Africa. The event attracted some 2,000 people, African-American and Caribbean, many of them visiting the continent for the first time. Dressed in African- inspired geles and robes, dozens of us came late one night to see the historic slave dungeons at the ocean-side city of Cape Coast. (Continue...)
Native Stranger by Eddy L. Harris
Thomas Wolfe said that going home again is like stepping into a river. You cannot step into the same river twice; you cannot go home again. After a very long time away, you will not find the same home you left behind. It will be different, and so will you. It is quite possible that home will not be home at all, meaningless except for its sentimental place in your heart. At best it will point the long way back to where you started, its value lying in how it helped to shape you and in the part of home you have carried away. (Continue...)
A Son Warms and Sets on African Soil by Raoul Dennis
A year ago, you couldn't have told me that within 15 months I'd be standing on African soil. But currents of time and destiny were in my favor, and so I stood there one night last May on the balcony of my hotel room in my Calvin Klein boxers, taking pictures of the Benin, West African, skyline. (Continue...)

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