Despite growing up in the South West province of Cameroon about 20mins form this location, it was my first time visiting the village. According to information found on the internet, this place was annexed by the Germans and incorporated in the colony of kamerun in 1884. Today it is situated in the east coast of the Limbe sub-division. Bimbia was the first place the white man , the Jamaican and English Baptist missionaries landed to build schools and churches. Presently Cameroon is working hard to make this historic site a UNESCO world heritage site.
My visit to this site was eye opening , surprising, sad and a learning experience. I had so many emotions that could not really be explained. Most of the structures are gone , but there is enough left to show you just how cruel the slave trade era was to mankind. One could still see the feeding trough, with the original chains , used on the slaves. The market square remains the same, and in my minds eyes , I think I was able to imagine how the sale of slaves went on on this very place where I was standing at the moment.
It was simply disheartening to come face to face with the DOOR OF NO RETURN. This is found in the hall which housed the most stubborn slaves. Once you went through this door, you got into a small boat through a narrow canal that lead to the big ship anchored on NICOLE island. The slave masters anchored here for months at a time to wait for slaves. People were brought there from all over the country under the pretext that they were going to be given jobs , only to find out upon arrival that they had been captured. While they were waiting to be sold , they were treated in the most inhuman way imaginable. Living in chains , working the oil mills, being dragged around like animals and ultimately being put on the market to be sold like property.
Standing on the sandy beaches and looking out at Nicole island was such a beautiful site , but to think that some three centuries ago this was a port for transatlantic slave trade , inadvertently brought tears to my eyes. Not to mention this was only one of the many sites across Africa.
Slave trade was a crime against humanity and unfortunately the malice is still going on today in our world only in different forms.
I did this piece because history matters : connecting the past with the present helps us as a society and as individuals to have a better understanding of the subjects that matter to us.
Please don’t forget to leave a comment , ask a question , or just simply let me know what you think.
The link below will take you to a video presentation of my visit.
Thanks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UurWOmKYcGo