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COTM - The Tower: Gorée Island and anger

COTM - The Tower: Gorée Island and anger

Volcanic rage. Ancestor approved.

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Rashunda Tramble
Jun 03, 2025
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Rashunda Tramble's Substack
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COTM - The Tower: Gorée Island and anger
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Two round oracle cards on a wooden table. Around them are paper tickets, a photo of a woman standing in a door, a feather, and a crystal
My entry tickets to Gorée Island, the “House of Slaves”, and a colleague standing at the “Door of No Return” / Deck: The Symdala Tarot by Jennifer Cooper Steidley

The terminal for the ferry to Gorée Island, located about 30-mins south of Dakar, Senegal, was packed with people on a warm day in early January this year: workers, merchants, and tourists. Tourists like me, ostensibly in the country for a writing workshop, and tourists like the old French-speaking white couple seated to the right of my group. An old Senegalese couple was sitting with them. Luggage was lined up in front of the four.

I was comforted by the sight of the two couples. Friends. Perhaps they all lived in the same retirement complex or attended the same church. For me, however they were connected, seeing them together was proof that Senegal was moving past its separatist, colonialist history.

People sitting in chairs in a large room. The view is from above.
Terminal for ferry to Gorée Island, Dakar

I lost them as we boarded the ferry and set sail to the last piece of homeland my ancestors probably saw after being kidnapped and herded onto ships.

Our wonderful guide, Kenza Sall, took charge when we landed, showing us various points of interest: the old Protestant church, which was the first holding pen on the island for captured Africans; the old Catholic church, which displayed a faded banner showing a lily-white Jesus saving the Africans; then the House of Slaves and its infamous "Door of No Return", the opening through which some of my ancestors were pushed and whipped through to board ships to the Americas. All while they were chained together with 10kg weights.

A woman in traditional clothing is talking to a group; the wooden door of a church; a banner showing a white man with Black people under him marching; a pink buildingA woman in traditional clothing is talking to a group; the wooden door of a church; a banner showing a white man with Black people under him marching; a pink building
A woman in traditional clothing is talking to a group; the wooden door of a church; a banner showing a white man with Black people under him marching; a pink buildingA woman in traditional clothing is talking to a group; the wooden door of a church; a banner showing a white man with Black people under him marching; a pink building
Top row: (L-R) Tour guide Kenza Sall, Old Presbytery Church; Bottom row (L-R) old banner of Jesus "saving" folks, entrance to "House of Slaves"

As if on cue tears flowed as I stood in the door. Normal for Black Americans I was told.

Then I felt a spark of anger.

Normal as well.

A woman with her back to the camera looks out of a door onto the sea
The “Door of No Return”

I backed away and walked to the entrance / exit of the building. And that's when I saw them out of the corner of my eye: the two couples. The old white couple was leaving the building empty handed.

The old Senegalese couple trailed behind, dragging the luggage I'd seen lined up in front of them in the ferry terminal. Naiveté slapped me in the face.

And my spark of anger morphed into full blown rage.

****

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