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Anomabu
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| Country | Ghana |
Anomabu (also known as Anomabo and Annamaboe), is a town on the coast of Ghana, Africa.
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Anomabu became the focus of intense European trade rivalry in the 17th and 18th centuries, partly because of its easy access to a rich hinterland and partly because the local Anomabu were themselves powerful and astute traders. From the middle of the 17th century, European companies vied with each other in the quest for rights to establish and maintain a trading post at Anomabu. The earliest lodge, built in 1640 by the Dutch using earthworks, changed hands four times—from the Dutch to Swedes, then to the Danes, back to the Dutch and finally to the British.
In 1674, the British built a small fort using more durable materials and called it Fort Charles, after the reigning monarch King Charles II. However, it was abandoned in order to concentrate efforts and costs on Fort Carolusburg at Cape Coast.
In 1698, the Royal African Company "licensed" ship captains not in its employment upon the payment of a 10% "affiliation fee" to enable them to trade in its areas of monopoly. There followed a flood of "Ten Percenters" trading at British forts, often outnumbering the company's own ships. Anomabu became a popular haunt of "ten percenters", (until their licensing was stopped in 1712), exporting vast numbers of slaves.
The Dutch director-general at Elmina, Engelgraaf Roberts, quoting an English captain on Anomabu slave trade exports stated in 1717: "From January 1702 to August 1708 they took to Barbados and Jamaica a total of not less than 30,14 slaves and in this figure are not include transactions made for other ships sailing to such Islands as Nevis, Montserrat, St. Christopher, for the South Sea Company, the New Netherlands and others which would increase the above number considerably, and of which Annemaboe alone could provide about one third."[1]
In 1753, after thwarting a French bid to establish a fort at Anomabu, the British began construction on Fort William (a later renaming of what was long referred to simply as "Annamaboe fort"). Designed by military engineer John Apperly, who became its first governor, the Anomabu fort became the center of British slave trading along the Gold Coast until the slave trade was outlawed in 1807.[2]
In modern times, Anomabu is a popular tourist destination. The remains of Fort William can still be seen.[3]