This information would be compiled into several forms including a book, a freestanding traveling exhibit, and a perhaps a lecture series.

The book would be a hard cover, photo-essay book, about 9x12 inches, about 180 pages in length. The paper would be heavy, quality glossy stock. The book could possibly be a "slip-cased" book.

The traveling exhibit would be freestanding displays, with photography and text.

The lecture series could be two fold, a more historical, factual side presented to schools, colleges and other institutions and then a more visual side presented to museums and photography concerns.

Most of the photography would be in color, perhaps a third of it in black-and-white. Some photos would be presented as two-page spreads, many as full-page photos. Some photos would have in-depth descriptions, others simply titles. Some spreads would have historical information on the left page, with a full-page photo on the right.

Text would include:

Photography would include:

The book would also include a satellite photo/map of the Atlantic Ocean, showing trade routes used by slave ships from these castles to their destinations and a satellite photo/map of the coast of Ghana with the castles labeled.

Qualifications: As a professional photographer, Douglas Henderson has over 20 years of experience. His work has been published in The New York Times, Newsweek, Newsweek Japan, The National Enquirer, the National Examiner and others. www.douglashenderson.com

Henderson has experience in Africa and first hand knowledge of the slave trading castles. In 2004 and again in 2005 Henderson spent time Ghana, visiting three of the castles there. His connections in Ghana include a tribal king and a doctor, the administrative head of one of the hospitals in Accra.

The Plan Much of the pre-project research is already complete. Henderson has visited some areas of the project and has a good idea of what is "on the ground" and has been in contact with people in the area for some time. Itemized budget of African documentary trip.

The current plan would call for Henderson to travel from the United States to Accra, Ghana, arriving in mid-July. Accra would be a "base of operations" since it is centrally located on the coast of Ghana, which is where the majority of the work will occur. Henderson would work his way along the coast of Ghana to the western-most castle, then return to Accra. Henderson would travel east from Accra shooting the remaining castles in that country. Henderson would then travel to back to Accra, and fly to Dakar, Senegal, on the west coast of the African continent. In Senegal he would shoot Goree Island, then travel the short distance into Gambia, where he would shoot Ft. James Island and two villages in that area. He would return to Dakar and then fly back to the United States, leaving Africa in late August. Baring unforeseen circumstances, by late October, rough editing and initial drafts of the book should be well underway. Hopefully by the end of the year the book would be ready to go to press. Day-by-day itinerary.

The Countries Involved Ghana, Senegal and Gambia are, at the time of this writing, politically stable and not hostile to the USA or Americans in general.

Ghana is considered by many to be the safest country in Africa. Ghana, where the majority of the away time will be spent is primarily a Christian nation.

While Gambia and Senegal are predominantly Muslim, both countries practice religious tolerance. Incidents of radicalism or terrorism against westerners are almost unheard of in these countries.

English is the official language of Ghana and Gambia. French is the language of Senegal.

All three countries are horribly impoverished, and have the usual challenges associated with the third world.

Malaria is the primary health concern in these countries. The greatest danger to travelers in all three countries is, oddly enough, automobile accidents.

Cell phones are usable throughout all three countries. The most common and most recommended method of transportation in all of these countries is by taxi or bus. All of which are dirt cheap compared to anything in the USA.

Details. Henderson would ship digital files from Africa multiple times during the trip. Ideally, all the photography would arrive in the United States before Henderson ever leaves Africa. Safety of the images will be paramount. Henderson plans to insure that safety through redundant copies. Images will be download onto his laptop computer which will then be used to produce multiple copies of the files onto CDRs. One set of these CDRs will be shipped via FEDEX back to the USA; a second set will remain in his luggage apart from his camera gear. Original files will remain on the laptop's hard drive.

Henderson would also post reports of his progress to his website every few days as access to the Internet allows. Internet cafes are surprisingly common.

Weather. This trip is scheduled (July/August 2007)to occur during West Africa's rainy season. This avoids both the humidity of the dry season, which makes for ugly skies and flat, low-contrast photography and the dust storms of the Harmattan winds, which blow across the Sahara into West Africa. The showers of the rainy season clean the air, making for better color and skies. Henderson is also of the opinion that some of the castles photographed during rainstorms should make for some dramatic, unusual photographs.

For general info on the castles and their locations: www.atidekate.com/diaspora.htm

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Doug Henderson is working to document Africa's Slave Castles. This documentation would produce a photo-essay type book, a traveling exhibit to schools and universities, a lecture series and a website.
VIEW PHOTOS OF CASTLES     ITINERARY        BUDGET      UNESCO REPORT

The Need; If you are an African American, or are acquainted with any, then you know someone whose ancestor passed through the dark dungeons of Africa's slave castles. About 6 million Africans left their native homeland through only about 30 points of departure. Surprisingly, most of these castles or forts still stand, concentrated along a narrow 300-mile stretch of African coastline.

The Castles, Forts and Camps; From the 1600's to the early 1800s, European traders built outposts along the coast of Africa for the purposes of collecting and holding slaves until ships could arrive to take the slaves to markets in the New World. These were not castles in the Disney Land sense of the word, but grim, utilitarian structures with large dungeons and fortifications. About 30 of these still exist. One, Goree Island, is off the coast of Senegal. Another is on James Island, in Gambia, a tiny country entirely within the bounds of Senegal. The remaining 28 are all within a 300-mile stretch along the Ghanaian coast. Two of the Ghanaian castles are still in use as prisons. View photos of castles

UNESCO has declared most of these sites as World Heritage Sites of immeasurable historical importance, and steps have been taken to preserve them(read the UNESCO 1998 REPORT)But the countries involved simply have no funds for doing this, and even if they did, HIV/AIDS and a thousand other causes would rightly take priority over the historical preservation of these sites. And as such, the sites continue to deteriorate. Reed and Henderson feel that these sites deserve to be thoroughly documented as soon as possible. Surprisingly this hasn't been done before. Henderson and Reed hope to donate a portion of the proceeds of book sales to the UNESCO World Heritage fund.

The Documentation. Such documentaion would primarily consist of new photography, videography and audio recordings of these places, accompanied by informational text, brief historical narratives and quotes from slaves. While this is seen as being primarily factual, Henderson also wants this to have a "human" or, for lack of a better term, a "spiritual" aspect. Text would be historically informative of the slave trade, but not exhaustive, as this has already been done and is not the focus of this project.