On the windswept coast of Senya Beraku, in Ghana’s Central Region, stands Fort Good Hope — or Fort Goede Hoop as the Dutch named it when they built it in 1667. What began as a “trading post” for gold and ivory soon became a way-point in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, its dungeons holding captives bound for the Americas.
The name promised optimism; the reality was horror. Centuries later, the irony lingers in every cracked wall and salt-bitten stone. When the British took over in 1872, the fort’s commercial purpose faded, and time began its slow reclamation. Today, it’s part of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed chain of Ghanaian forts and castles — but like so many of them, it’s eroding faster than it’s being preserved.
Visitors who make it to Senya Beraku reported previously, to find the gate rusted shut or the courtyard overgrown. Locals act as unofficial guides, pointing out cannon fragments and collapsed arches. From the ramparts, the Atlantic looks endless —however, as of the moment, it serves as an rather in-official local guesthouse, giving some good use and a bit of maintenance.
As Ghana’s tourism campaigns celebrate “heritage and hope,” Fort Good Hope quietly contradicts the slogan. It tells a harder truth: that the monuments defining our shared history are being lost, one tide and one budget cut at a time.
If “heritage preservation” is to mean anything beyond the brochure, Fort Good Hope deserves more than slogans. It needs more maintenance, protection, and public accountability — before another fort becomes a memory.
For information — or to ask the custodians what’s being done — contact the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) at:
📧 Info@gmmb.gov.gh
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