AP White House reporter Chris Megerian Kamala Harris took on a trip from Accra to Cape Coast like you've never seen it before while she was in Ghana.
Ghana's Cape Coast (AP) — On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris visited the location where millions of enslaved Africans were imprisoned before being put onto ships headed for the Americas. She entered through the fort's dark doors and descended into the dungeons.
Harris was insisting on recalling the tragic past through her visit to Cape Coast Castle, despite the fact that earlier on Tuesday she had stood in front of a monument honoring Ghana's independence and imagined a glorious future for the U.S. and Africa driven by creativity on the continent.
She remarked from the fort as the sun was setting over the ocean, "The tragedy of what happened here must always be remembered." "That is indisputable. It must be instructed. History should be studied. Many of the slave-holding fortifications in West Africa, like Cape Coast Castle, were located in Ghana. The local government has seen maintaining them as a part of its duty to preserve history.
To speak candidly about the suffering "that stench from this location" and the atrocities faced by individuals who passed through those walls, including mass kidnapping, illness, rape, and death, Harris forwent her planned remarks. In the Americas, any who survived were bought into servitude. And yet, she continued, her voice breaking with passion. She asserted that the African diaspora's tenacity and resolve should be praised.
Accra, Ghana On Monday, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visited Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, who is dealing with growing inflation and new worries about regional security. She complimented Akufo-Addo for his "democratic values" and expressed her admiration for his "convictions."
In an effort to increase American influence in Africa at a time when China and Russia have entrenched interests of their own, Harris is just starting a week-long tour to the continent that will also take her to Tanzania and Zambia. The vice president was welcomed on Monday into the Jubilee House, the country's presidential residence, where she pledged support for greater security and investments.
