Fort Saint Sebastian was built by Portugal between 1520 and 1526 within an area which is now occupied by the small fishing village of Shama. This fort was estabhllished to serve as a deterrant to English traders competing with the Portuguese slave trade. Between 1640 and 1642 it was captured and rebuilt by the Dutch after falling into disrepair. In 19872 it was ceded to Britain.

Fort Saint Sebastian like the other forts and castles along the Gold Coast protected important ports of the European-African Gold and Ivory trade and became later centres of the trans-Atlantic Slave trade. Fort Saint Sebastia, together with 17 other fortified trading-posts in Ghana is inscribed as “Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Zamani Project spatially documented Fort Saint Sebastian in 2013.

Similar sites:
Elmina Castle (Elmina, Ghana), Fort Saint Jago (Elmina, Ghana), Cape Coast Castle (Cape Coast, Ghana), Fort Saint Anthony (Axim, Ghana), Fort of São Sebastião (Mozambique Island, Mozambique), Castle of Good Hope (Cape Town, South Africa), Fort d'Estress (Ile de Gorée), Bunce Island Fort (Bunce Island, Sierra Leone)