The Door of Return

The Door of Return

 

The decision to build a monument; The Door of Return in Accompong Town, St Elizabeth Jamaica, is not only the antithesis to The Door of No Return; it may also prove to be a significant sign of a rebirth – the gathering of the descendants of Jacob from the four corners of the earth.

The Door of No Return on Gorée Island which is situated 3 km off the coast of the city of Dakar, Senegal; is an historic site Maison des Esclaves (The House of Slaves), from which the Door of No Return is said to have served as an exit point for the people kidnapped from the African interior. Built by Nicolas Pépin in 1780–1784, this UNESCO World Heritage site continues to attract tourists from Europe and remains a pilgrimage site for the African Diaspora whose ancestors were forcibly removed from their homeland.

Pope John Paul II, Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and President Obama (June 2013) have visited the controversial memorial which some local historians claim showed little evidence of a “large-scale trans-Atlantic slave trade” economy.1 According to census records obtained from the 18th century, the majority of enslaved population fell under the category of domestic slaves, rather than slaves to be exported.

This is by no means the only Door of No Return on the West African Coast. It seems that Wikipedia and mainstream historians are reluctant to admit that all forts and castles in West Africa have the Door of No Return, because it was through those doors, or gates that slaves were scattered abroad.

Fort Kormantin

Fort Kormantin was built by the English between 1638 and 1645 and sits on a hill in Kormantin-Abandze in the Central Region of Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast). In 1661, the Royal African Company obtained ownership of the fort, and it became the headquarters of English Gold Coast activities until 1665 when Dutch Admiral Michiel Adriaensz De Ruyter captured the fort after a bloody battle.3 

 

Fort Kormantin Ghana West Africa 1661

Renamed Fort Amsterdam by the Dutch, the fort is believed to have housed the first slave prison on the Gold Coast, and the name Kormantin became synonymous for the toughest men who had resisted capture. The Kormantin from the Gold Coast, were sold from the Slave Coast (Kingdom of Juda) and passed through the Door of No Return at Ouidah before being transported to the Caribbean Islands.4  By far the largest number of Jamaicans and Haitians are Kormantin.

The Door of Return

Timothy McPherson says The Door of Return is to be built in Accompong Town, St Elizabeth, as an emblem of African renaissance. McPherson has finalised the agreement with the Monument and Museums Board of Ghana who have recognised the Maroon community and their ancestral battles and victories against those who sought to take away their humanity.
History has now revealed that these Kormantin were Hebrews, and there is evidence that their captors (the British, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese) knew their heritage and chose to conceal it, that they might cut them off from being a nation. The Most High has promised to bring the descendants of the captives back to their own land, and the Door of Return is just one among many signs that the forces of heaven have gathered together to overthrow the captivity of Jacob mentally, physically and spiritually.

 

1 van Dantzig, Albert, Forts and Castles of Ghana, 1980, pg 35.

2 //www.ghanamuseums.org/forts/fort-amsterdam.php

3 “New Perspectives in Global Public Archaeology – Springer”.

 doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-0341-8.

4Goree and the Atlantic Slave Trade“, Philip Curtin, History Net, accessed 9 July 2008

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