At the edge of Gberefu Island in Badagry lies a narrow strip of land washed by Atlantic waves, a place marked by sorrow, silence, and unspeakable pain. This is the Point of No Return, a haunting remnant of the transatlantic slave trade where countless African captives took their final steps on homeland soil before being shipped off into slavery. After days of being held in chains at the Badagry slave markets and confined in dark, suffocating cells, the enslaved were marched through a symbolic journey that ended at this very spot.
Bound together and stripped of their identities, they walked through what is now remembered as the “Attenuation Well”, a site believed to be used by slave merchants to mentally erase the captives’ memories. Then, they arrived at the shoreline, boarded waiting boats, and sailed into the unknown. Families were permanently torn apart. Names and cultures were erased. Only footprints and fading whispers remain.
Today, the Point of No Return stands not only as a solemn tourist site but as a place of remembrance, meditation, and learning. Visitors walk the same sandy path, guided by tales of heartbreak, resistance, and resilience. The site’s quietness echoes louder than words, reminding all who pass through it of a brutal history that must never be forgotten.
