Crab Orchard Review Vol. 12, No. 2, our

166 ◆ Crab Orchard Review
Kim Foote
Elmina’s traditional military defense units. Occasionally, everyone
pauses for the Omanhen to dance a circle around his umbrella twirler
and the drummers.
The procession files into the Dutch cemetery at the center of
Elmina and gathers at the large, central mausoleum. Dr. Annan-Prah,
a University of Cape Coast professor from Elmina, makes a speech
about Bronya’s origins, which explains why its name is curiously
similar to what Ghanaians love to call me: oburonyi—the foreigner,
the stranger.
In the mid-1600s, after the Dutch ousted the Portuguese from
São Jorge da Mina Castle, their Elmina trading post, the Portuguese
officially relinquished the castle keys on the first Thursday of January.
Each year thereafter on that day, the Dutch invited Elmina’s rulers
to the castle to settle disputes and misunderstandings to ensure a
productive trading partnership. The day fell not long after the Dutch
men’s Christmas, which involved sharing of gifts and drinks. Elminans
took to saying, “Buronyi enya (‘the white man has an abundance,’
corrupted to “Bronya”), womma yεnkεdzi (‘so let’s go and enjoy it’).”
Dr. Annan-Prah concludes, “And so we are here today to lay
wreaths as a sign of unity for our own ancestors of Elmina who are
dead, for the Dutch ancestors and governors who are dead, for the
missionaries who have come here, and for all people of Elmina who
make it what it is today.”
The Omanhen, Dutch ambassador, and KEEA District Assemblyman
each lay a wreath at the base of the mausoleum. Mr. Mensah huffs
and tells me that the Netherlands now provides financial assistance
for various projects and causes in Elmina and Ghana. How generous, I
think sarcastically. Having helped depopulate the land by buying and
exporting slaves for over two centuries, it’s the least they can do.
The procession continues to the durbar by the Elmina castle,
but I linger in the cemetery and take a good look at the whitewashed
cement tombs. Most of them contain the remains of Dutch men who
orchestrated the forced exodus of people, some who were possibly
my ancestors. Yet, here it is, 2003, and homage is still paid to their
friendship.
My book research on the slave trade floods back, filling in the
essential piece: the Dutch inhabited the Elmina castle for over two
hundred and thirty years, but they didn’t imprison masses of Elminans
in the castle’s dungeons to take to the Americas. If they had, there’d be
no Elmina to speak of today. Those local rulers who visited the castle