Elmina

Elmina, called Edina in Fante, is a town on the south coast of Ghana in the Central Region and the capital of the Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem District. It sits on a bay of the Atlantic Ocean, 12.2 kilometres west of Cape Coast, and had a population of 33,576 in 2013. It was the first European settlement in West Africa: in the 1470s the Portuguese struck an agreement with the King of Elmina to build the Sao Jorge da Mina Castle, and the settlement grew into an important centre of commerce and trade. Before the Portuguese came, the town was called Anomansah, after its position on the peninsula between the Benya lagoon and the sea, and the name Elmina simply means the mine. Oral tradition credits a hunter, Kwaa Amankwaa, with founding it, and in 1478 a Castilian armada and a Portuguese fleet fought a large naval battle nearby for control of the Guinea trade.