Vice President Kamala Harris toured the dungeons and the black doors of a colonial-era seaside fort on Tuesday, where millions of enslaved Africans were held captive before being put onto ships heading for the Americas.
Harris was insisting on remembering the tragic past even as she stood earlier Tuesday before a monument commemorating Ghana’s independence, predicting a magnificent future between the United States and Africa fueled by African creativity.
“The horror of what happened here must always be remembered,” she said from the fort as the sun set over the water. “It cannot be denied. It must be taught. History must be learned.”
The country’s first Black and South Asian vice president is the most visible member of President Joe Biden’s cabinet to visit Africa as the United States expands its engagement with the continent. The activities on her second day in Ghana are part of a week-long journey that will also include stops in Tanzania and Zambia.
Cape Coast Castle is one of dozens of slave-holding fortifications in West Africa, many of which are in Ghana. The government has seen their preservation as part of its historical responsibilities.
Harris deviated from her prepared speech to speak candidly about the misery “that oozes from this location” and the horrors faced by individuals who went through those gates, including mass kidnapping, disease, rape, and death. In the Americas, those who survived were sold into slavery.
“And yet, they survived,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. She said the endurance and determination of the African diaspora in the world should be admired.
“All of us, regardless of our background, have benefitted from their fight for freedom and justice,” she said.
During their tour, Harris and husband Doug Emhoff walked past a plaque commemorating a visit by Barack and Michelle Obama, the nation’s first Black president and first lady. The couple walked along the stone ramparts flanked by cannons, pausing to gaze out over the sea as waves crashed on the rocky shore below.
She passed through white archways and down a darkened path leading through the infamous “door of no return,” through which slaves left the coast and never came back. Harris choked back tears, her hand on her mouth, as she approached. She placed a white bouquet of flowers, given to her during the arrival ceremony, at the entrance to a women’s dungeon nearby.
Harris has proved to be a potent messenger in Ghana, and thousands waited hours earlier Tuesday at Independence Square for a chance to see her speak at the Black Stone Gate monument.
“Because of this history, this continent of course has a special significance for me personally, as the first Black vice president of the United States,” she said to huge cheers from the crowd. “And this is a history, like many of us, that I learned as a young child.”
During her remarks at the monument, Harris pledged a new era of partnership with Africa, envisioning “a future that is propelled by African innovation.”
Much of her remarks there focused on innovation and entrepreneurship, part of her effort to spotlight Africa as a place for American private-sector investment. It’s something that Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo said he hopes to see after years of being overlooked.
