Kamala Harris visits Ghana ‘slave castle,’ says ‘history must be learnt

On Tuesday, Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States, visited Cape Coast Castle, a colonial-era seaside fort in Ghana, which once held millions of enslaved Africans before they were shipped to the Americas. Harris acknowledged the painful past and insisted that it must always be remembered, even as she attended a monument celebrating Ghana’s independence and envisioned a future of innovation and entrepreneurship between the US and Africa.

She highlighted the horrors endured by the people who passed through those walls; mass kidnapping, sickness, rape, and death, and admired the endurance and determination of the African diaspora. Harris visited Cape Coast Castle as part of a weeklong trip that will include visits to Tanzania and Zambia.

During her tour, Harris placed a bouquet of flowers at the entrance to a women’s dungeon nearby and homed in on areas for work, including promoting democracies across the world, progress in the digital economy in Africa, and the empowerment of women.