By CHRIS MEGERIAN and COLLEEN LONG
Associated Press
CAPE COAST, Ghana (AP) -- Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday stepped through the black doors of a colonial-era seaside fort and down into the dungeons, touring a site where millions of enslaved Africans were held captive before they were loaded onto ships bound for the Americas.
With her visit to Cape Coast Castle, Harris was insisting on remembering the painful past even as she stood earlier Tuesday before a monument commemorating Ghana's independence, envisioning a grand future between the U.S. and Africa propelled by innovation on the continent.
"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 nation's first Black and South Asian vice president is the most high-profile member of President Joe Biden's administration to visit Africa as the U.S. escalates its outreach to the continent. The events on her second day in Ghana are part of a weeklong trip that will include visits to Tanzania and Zambia.
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."
Tracy Sika Brobbey said "it's a special moment" to see the first woman vice president. Margaret Mintah, who waited alongside her, said Harris "gives us some kind of hope, that we can believe that anything is possible."
"It's like a blessing," she added.
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.
"We must invest in the African ingenuity and creativity, which will unlock incredible economic growth and opportunities," Harris said, highlighting the continent's innovations to deliver emergency healthcare supplies and provide vaccines, and in farming and mineral processing.
The U.S. must be guided "not by what we can do for our African partners, but we can do with our African partners."