Date: May 15, 2025
CACS has long hoped to establish a regular Cross-Cultural Education Program with Ghana, especially with the area of the coastal Slave Forts. David Smith used his spring break to travel to Ghana with support from Seminary Consultation on Mission (SCOM) and the Reverend Akua Ofori-Boateng, Diocese of Accra, who was a VTS Communion Sabbatical visitor in 2022 and a participant in the Women Mentoring Women Conference in February 2025. We are honored to present some of David Smith’s reflections from his time in Ghana below:
During the spring semester 2025, I was blessed with the opportunity to spend two weeks in Ghana. I spent the majority of this time in the capitol city of Accra, but I also spent time in both Cape Coast and Elmina. I had five goals for this trip:
- To visit the “Slave Castles” on Ghana’s coast;
- To interview Anglican leaders in Ghana;
- To create music to serve as a theological reflection of the trip, incorporating Ghanian musical sounds and artists;
- To immerse myself in different worship spaces and attend a worship service;
- To explore the culture of Ghana: to spend time with Ghanian people, go where they go, and live as they do.
While in Ghana, I stayed with a friend named Mascot. He lives with a friend in the Barracks of Roman Ridge, Accra. He and his friend work as prison officers. While staying there, I was fully immersed in authentic Ghanian customs and ways of living. Mascot and his friend, Nana Kofi, truly looked out for me during the entire trip, and I am extremely grateful for their presence.
I learned something profound in pursuit of each goal. Visiting the slave castles in Cape Coast and Elmina was extremely powerful and would have been worth the trip on its own. I was able to see the slave trade in a completely different way. I’m often told the story of what happened in America, but hearing and seeing the story from an African point of view was very insightful and moving. The most surprising (and disturbing) thing that I learned was just how common and easy it was for the leaders within the castles to impregnate the captured female Africans.
To continue reading David’s reflections please click here.
Katherine Grieb, Hartley Wensing, Melissa Allbrandt, Addie Budnick, Noni Shezi, and Daniel Bentley
CACS Team