Garrison Cemetery adds to tourist sites

STORY: FROM MAGDALENE SEY, CAPE COAST

A massive rehabilitation project is currently underway at the deplorable colonial European Garrison Cemetery in Cape Coast to add up to the tourism potential in the area.

The 19th century cemetery situated at Bakaano near the Cape Coast Town Hall was the burial ground for British colonial garrisons stationed inside the Cape Coast Castle.

According to the contractor in charge of the project, Mr Kwame Sarpong, who is also the President of the Ghana National Committee of the International Council on Monuments (ICOMOS-Ghana), the colonial cemetery has over 1,250 dead soldiers and civilian administrative support staff and also has soldiers belonging to the Royal African Colonial Corps, Royal Cape Coast Militia, Royal Cape Coast Volunteer Corps, Gold Coast Artillery Corps and the West Indian Regiment brought in from Sierra Leone.

Mr Sarpong disclosed that burial at the colonial cemetery started as far back as 1797 when the first burial was recorded, adding that in 1824 mass burial started in the area and the last burial was recorded in 1905.

He said the cemetery which has been abandoned for a long time also has the remains of Jacob Wilson Sey, leader of the Fante Confederacy and his wife.

He said the project is being supported by the Cultural Emergency Programme of the Prince Claus (husband of the current queen of England) fund who assisted with € 30,000, the Ghana Veterans Association and the Anglican Church of Cape Coast.

He noted that the restoration of the project will include demolition of damaged pillars and weakened bamboo fencing to be replaced by a perimeter wall, construction of walkway and concrete kerb, restoration of tombs and landscaping.

Mr Sarpong added that a wreath laying point and a memorial plaque that will bear the names of all those buried there will be erected to enable tourists and relatives who visit the place trace their relatives who served in the area within those periods.

Some of those the soldiers who were buried there include, Colonel Frank Bernasko who was the central regional minister under the Acheampong regime, Late chief medical officer of the Gold Coast, John Farrel Easmon, Lieutenant Charles O. Sayce, Capt William Henry Lowther and Phyllis Reener of Sierra Leone.

A libation was earlier poured by the Cape Coast Traditional Council for the dead to pave the way for the project to take off.

Meanwhile, the family of the late Jacob Wilson Sey is planning to put up a memorial park near the cemetery to boost tourism in the area.