BBC News Features DeCorse’s Field Work in Ghana, Discovery of ‘First English Slave Fort in Africa’

August 4, 2023

BBC

Christopher DeCorse

Anthropology Department

Maxwell African Scholars Union

Africa (Sub-Saharan)

Archaeology

BBC

Christopher DeCorse

Christopher DeCorse, professor and chair of anthropology, is spending time in Ghana this summer, sifting through the ruins of Fort Amsterdam. Inside the fort are what are thought to be the remains of an older fort—Kormantine—long-lost under the earth, which he and his team are gradually excavating with brisk activity.

The remnants found so far point to the existence of "the first English outpost established anywhere in Africa," DeCorse argues, and may shed some light on the lives of those early traders and what they were doing, as well as those who were sold and the impact on the community around them.

"We don't have that many details on exactly what these early outposts of the slave trade looked like, which is one of the things that make uncovering the foundations of Fort Kormantine interesting," says DeCorse.

Read more in the BBC News article, "'First English slave fort in Africa' uncovered on Ghana's coast."