During her first visit to Ghana, Dame Sarah Mullally expressed regret over the Church of England’s role in transatlantic chattel slavery and reaffirmed her support for a controversial £100m fund for communities affected by enslavement. The archbishop of Canterbury made the remarks on Thursday at Cape Coast castle, where thousands of enslaved Africans were once held before being shipped across the Atlantic.
What did the archbishop say at Cape Coast Castle?
Dame Sarah Mullally said the visit made it impossible to ignore the suffering linked to the slave trade. At the former British castle, she described the Church of England’s involvement as something for which she felt “lament” and said the fund reflects the Christian belief in repentance.
“Being at Cape Coast Castle today and seeing the horrific conditions that thousands of people were kept in, it is impossible not to feel the weight of the immense evil that drove the transatlantic slave trade,”
Cape Coast castle is a 17th-century fortress that was built by Swedish traders, then occupied by the Danish and the Dutch, before the British seized it in 1664. Mullally was shown the dungeons used to keep enslaved people, prayed in a former Anglican chapel above them, and visited the “Door of No Return”, where enslaved people were loaded on to ships and ferried across the Atlantic.
How did the Ghana visit begin?
Her trip began in Accra, 142km east of Cape Coast, on Sunday. In the capital, Mullally visited four local parishes and preached at a special Eucharistic service at St Joseph the Worker Anglican church in the Kaneshie area. According to local reports, the service was officiated by an all-female clergy from the Anglican church of Ghana.
Mullally, who in March became the 106th head of the 492-year-old denomination and the only woman to do so, also met Ghanaian president John Mahama earlier in the tour, along with her husband, Eamonn Mullally.
What else did she do in Ghana?
Since the government launched the in 2019 to help Africans and their descendants in the diaspora reconnect with their roots, Ghana has seen a surge in visitors. As part of Mullally’s visit, she laid a foundation stone for a hostel belonging to the local church’s culture resort initiative, intended to accommodate pilgrims from the diaspora who want to engage in the scheme.
The archbishop also preached at a service of more than 1,000 nurses in the town of Mampong, where she commissioned a new campus clinic named after her. She is due to head to Yaoundé, the Cameroonian capital, on Friday before proceeding to Douala and the English-speaking cities of Buea and Limbe.
Why is Ghana pushing for reparative justice?
Ghana has been leading a global campaign to seek reparative justice and last month hosted a attended by heads of state from more than 80 countries. The country has also promoted heritage and diaspora visits linked to efforts to reconnect descendants of enslaved Africans with their ancestral roots.
How does this visit relate to the Church of England’s apology?
The archbishop’s visit comes three years after her predecessor Justin Welby formally apologised for the church’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, including using a fund for poor clergy to invest in enslaving Africans. He said the church’s past was a lasting disgrace.
“It is a stain on the wider church that some Christians did not see their brothers and sisters as created in the image of God, but as objects to be exploited,”
The church later set up a £100m fund committed to “a programme of investment, research and engagement” in communities affected by slavery, prompting criticism. An independent oversight group said the amount was not enough to address the generational damage caused by slavery and urged the church to increase the commitment to £1bn. When Mullally became archbishop, a committee of Conservative MPs urged her to spend the money on wages for the church’s clergy.
What is Mullally’s position on the fund?
On Thursday, Mullally restated her support for the fund and linked it to repentance in practical action.
“We played a part in the transatlantic slave trade … part of the Christian belief in repentance is about action, so we are putting in place action to support those communities that feel the legacy of the slave trade,”
Across Ghana, the mood has largely been celebratory. On Wednesday, at the palace of the Asantehene, the traditional ruler of the Asante people in Kumasi, Mullally wore a special cassock and cape lined with kente cloth that delighted palace chiefs.
Not everyone was enthusiastic. Accra-based accountant Kenneth Mordzro said he believes the church should do more on reparations and called for the return of looted items taken during the colonial era.
“They should bring back the gold and artefacts they stole from our ancestors during the colonial days,”
He was referring to loot taken by the British government during the Anglo-Asante wars of the 19th century.
