Fragments of Belonging: Notes From The Castle

Month 3: Stories From The Dungeons

​My recent month long visit to Ghana was not planned around work. I went to attend my sister’s requiem mass and to spend time with family, especially my aunt, Auntie Alberta, the family matriarch, who celebrated her ninety third birthday whilst I was there. It became a deeply grounding trip, filled with reflection, laughter and quiet moments of gratitude.
 
During those weeks I also travelled to Cape Coast and Elmina to gather new material for my Fragments of Belonging project. I went with my sister’s best friend Wendie, her nephew Nana and my nephew Mark. The road between Kasoa and Winneba Junction was particularly rough, with roadworks in progress, large craters and potholes of red earth and dust. With no white lines, traffic became something of a free for all as vehicles picked out the best routes in either direction. Nana drove us carefully and patiently through it all. Mark managed the drone with ease and captured some remarkable aerial footage that will form part of the film work for the project.
 
At Cape Coast Castle
We spent several hours at Cape Coast Castle, walking through the dungeons, and along the passage leading to the Door of No Return. I have visited before, but this time I went with the intention of reimagining rather than observing.
 
The air was heavy and humid, the kind of heat that clings to your skin. It was breezy by the sea yet swelteringly hot inside the thick stone walls. I paid attention to everything: the shifting light, the echo of footsteps, the wreaths now lining the dungeon walls laid by descendants who have returned to honour their ancestors, and the sudden glare as you step outside into blinding brightness. Standing there, I thought about what it meant to begin a forced journey across the Atlantic, to lose everything familiar and face an unknown horizon.
 
I found myself thinking of Whitehaven, the harbour that has become such an anchor in my work. The same ocean that carried ships from Cape Coast reaches the shores of Cumbria. Two harbours connected by water and history, one story reflected in another.
 
An unexpected connection
Just as we were getting ready to leave, I met a woman whose heritage lies in Antigua. She lives in London and teaches in a primary school there. It was one of those unplanned meetings that immediately felt significant. By then my main film equipment had already been packed into the car, so I quickly recorded our conversation on my iPhone, standing near the water with the sound of outboard motors humming in the background.
 
The audio quality was far from ideal, but I was determined not to lose the moment. Her reflections added another layer to the story of Fragments of Belonging, linking Ghana, England, and Antigua in a way that felt immediate and real. I have her contact details and hope to record a proper follow up interview with her later. Encounters like this remind me that these stories often find their own way to surface when you stay open to them.
 
Sketching in the heat
I had hoped to sketch more on site, but the conditions were difficult. I was both camera person and subject, with Wendie acting as a very able assistant. The heat was relentless, the light glaring and the humidity so intense that within minutes I was perspiring by the bucket. More than once I felt faint and had to pause, water bottle in hand, waiting for the dizziness to pass.
 
Still, I made quick notes and took as many photographs and film footage as possible, knowing they would become references for drawings and paintings later. I plan to create new sketches in the studio from those images, capturing not only the structures and spaces but also the sensations of that day, the heat, the glare and the weight of history pressing through the air.
 
Towards the poem Where Is Home
The experiences and images from Cape Coast and Elmina will flow into my new poem titled 'Where Is Home?'. The poem asks what home truly is; moving between memory, migration, and ancestry. It holds the tension between the places we leave behind, the places we rebuild, and the places that still call to us across the water. I can already imagine how the film might unfold, with Mark’s drone footage gliding over the sea and stone, the rhythm of waves and my voice carrying the poem above the sound of the Atlantic.
 
Back in Cumbria
Now back in the studio, I have been sorting through notes, footage, and sketches, letting ideas settle before they take form. The trip deepened my understanding of what Fragments of Belonging can become. Each place and each encounter adds another piece to the story, slowly shaping a larger picture.

Looking toward Antigua
The next stage of this work will carry me to Antigua. It was one of the Caribbean islands directly connected to Whitehaven through the trade routes that once linked the Gold Coast, the Caribbean and Britain. Sugar grown in Antigua travelled across the Atlantic to the port at Whitehaven, while ships leaving the Cumbrian coast completed the triangle by returning to West Africa.
 
Antigua holds the third point of this project. Whitehaven is where this work began. Ghana is where the deeper story unfolded. Antigua is the place where the echoes of both histories meet and continue.
 
To complete Fragments of Belonging, I know I will need to stand on Antiguan soil, walk its coastline and listen for the stories held there. It will form the final part of this journey and help bring the full shape of the project into view.
 
For now, I am beginning the work of the second poem and the film. The notes, images and impressions gathered in Ghana are already finding their way onto the page and into the camera. Each fragment is helping me understand what should come next. 


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