The Prince of Wales joined in an impromptu dance party today, as he was handed a small Ghanaian percussion instrument to take a starring role in a local band.
The Prince, who was visiting Christiansborg Castle in Osu, Ghana, was invited into the centre of a small local band as they played for his entertainment. Presented with a calabash, a small instrument not unlike the maracas, he gamely shook it in time with the music as he danced along.
It was a moment of levity at the end of an otherwise serious visit to the castle, in which the Prince was told the chilling history of the building before being shown artefacts excavated from it during restoration, and seeing the bedroom his mother the Queen slept in in 1962.
He was given a gift of children’s books about the “colours of Africa”, offered for his grandchildren, as well as maps of the area and souvenir mugs. The castle is now being restored and redeveloped into a museum by Sir David Adjaye, the architect.
Build in the 1661, the castle was a former headquarters of British government in the colonial era, and, when under the rule of the Danes, once housed and processed more than a million African slaves. The Prince, told the history of the castle by Samuel Acquaah, Head of Education at Ghana Museums and Monuments Board as he was shown around, walked down the spiral staircase used by slaves as they took their final journey to the beach to be loaded onto ships to the New World.
In a sombre moment, in the searing heat, he paused at the foot of the stairs, called the Door of No Return, to absorb the chilling history of the building. The staircase was designed to be particularly narrow so that slaves could only walk one-by-one, and could not overpower Danish traders.
At the bottom is a holding cell in dungeons where enslaved Africans were kept for up to six months as they awaited transportation. It is estimated that more 1.5 million African people were traded through Christiansborg Castle under Danish rule, out of the six million human beings were traded from West Africa.
In the mid 19th century, the castle was sold to the British to be used as a headquarters for the colonial administration. In 1957, after Ghana declared independence - in a document signed at the castle - it became the country’s seat of government.
The Prince was shown the main staircase of the castle, which features on Ghanaian bank notes, as well as a dining room with a spectacular view out to sea. He is said to have recognised a bedroom once slept in by his mother, and seen by him when he visited in 1977.
After signing the visitor’s book, the Prince stepped back out into the bright sunlight to be greeted by singers, musicians and dancers from Osu.
As they performed around him, he joined in with the spirit of the moment by accepting a percussion instrument and dancing along.
Later in the day, the Prince was joined by the Duchess of Cornwall for a trip to an district of Ghana famed for its lively arts scene, in which they were entertained by a football coming a little close for comfort.
The Duchess found a novel use for her fan, batting away the ball as it headed in their direction.
The Royal couple, who are spending their second day in Ghana, visited Jamestown to be introduced to a centre for youth culture, music, art and heritage.
During a tour of a photography exhibition, they were taken into a courtyard where a variety of activities were taking place, including a football demonstration by the Books and Boots organisation which encourages children to pursue both sport and education.
Former professional footballer Awudu Issaka, a member of Ghana's 1995 Fifa Under-17 World Cup winning team, who runs the Acccra-based group, showed the prince some balancing skills, even jokingly placing the ball under his shirt as if he were pregnant, which had Prince Charles in hysterics.
Two of his team, Asantewaa, 13, and Ahtwi, 16, then stepped forward to give a demonstration in the crowded courtyard, heading the football back and forth.
On several occasions, it came perilously close to the future king and his wife, so Camilla, 71, gamely stepped in and batted it away with her brightly coloured fan. The 69-year-old prince, laughing at the Duchess' reaction, said of the fan: "I wondered what that was for."
The couple were also give leafy green garlands to wear made from bitter Nyanyra leaves by a tribal chef, which are used in folk medicine to treat stomach aches and pain.
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