Qualla: Gberefu Island

Gberefu Island: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tolulope Sanusi, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the Ewe language, Gberefu -- or more precisely Agbedefu -- means "life is trouble" or "life is difficult." For the millions of enslaved people who passed through this small island off the coast of Badagry between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, the name was an understatement of nearly incomprehensible proportions. Gberefu Island was their last contact with the African continent. Two poles, slightly slanted toward each other and facing the Atlantic Ocean, now mark the spot known as the Point of No Return. They stand as a memorial to the people who were forced past this threshold and onto ships bound for the Caribbean and the Americas, most of whom would never see their homeland again.

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Image: Tolulope Sanusi | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gberefu Island: The Threshold

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Samuel Tobbytex007, CC BY-SA 4.0. Gberefu Island opened as a slave port in 1473, predating European colonization of most of the Americas. According to Nigerian historians, as many as three million enslaved people were shipped from this island between 1518 and 1880. The scale of that number resists comprehension. ...

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Image: Samuel Tobbytex007 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gberefu Island: Salt Merchants and Fishermen

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Samuel Tobbytex007, CC BY-SA 4.0. Gberefu Island has its own community, one whose story extends beyond the slave trade. The island's first settlers were Ewe people, salt merchants and fishermen from Keta who arrived around 1734 and established two villages under one umbrella: Gbragada and Kofeganme, also known as...

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Image: Samuel Tobbytex007 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gberefu Island: The Spirit Attenuation Well

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Yemi festus, CC BY 3.0. Along the slave route on Gberefu Island, there is a feature known as the Spirit Attenuation Well. Captives were forced to drink from it or walk around it as part of a ritual intended to make them forget their homeland, their families, and their identities before embarkation. The ...

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Image: Yemi festus | CC BY 3.0

Gberefu Island: Returning to the Point of No Return

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Solasly, CC BY-SA 4.0. Since the late twentieth century, Gberefu Island has become a site of pilgrimage and remembrance. Members of the African diaspora, particularly from the Americas and the Caribbean, travel to Badagry to walk the slave route and stand at the Point of No Return monument. According t...

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Image: Solasly | CC BY-SA 4.0