Fort James

The lighthouse at Fort James towers over the Accra coastline with bold, alternating bands of white and red. Originally built by the British in the seventeenth century, this structure served as a trading post for enslaved people before becoming a prison under colonial rule. In nineteen thirty-one, a modern lighthouse replaced the older navigational beacons here, casting a light that reached miles into the Gulf of Guinea. The salt air has weathered the stone walls, keeping the sharp, brutal history of the fort visible.