Clinton Visits Slave-Trading Site
President Clinton closed out his 12-day tour of sub-Saharan Africa Thursday by paying homage to a dark chapter in human history, the "murderous passage" to slavery in a new continent.
Ultimately those slaves became American citizens. "The long journey of African-Americans proves that the spirit can never be enslaved," Clinton said in a speech on Goree Island in western Senegal, where countless numbers of Africans were shipped into enslavement.
The president pointed out that the descendants of some of those slaves became leaders of American society. He pointed out some examples in his delegation, including successful business and political leaders.
"Long after the slave ships stopped sailing to America, Goree Island still today looks out onto the new world connecting two continents, standing as a vivid reminder that for some of America's ancestors the journey to America was anything but a search for freedom and yet still a symbol of the bright new era of partnership between our peoples," he said.
Clinton visited the island to tour a former slave house and deliver a speech outlining his vision for future U.S.-African partnerships.
In a hazy sunshine, Clinton and his wife Hillary took a two-mile boat ride to Goree. They were greeted on the island by children waving flags and cheering. The president and first lady walked along a cobblestone path to a two-story, red-clay former slave house.
Goree Island is home to about 1,300 people. Its name means "good harbor." It was a principal site for slave trading in West Africa, and was an outpost for interdicting the seas and expanding French colonialism once France abolished slavery in its territories in 1856.
With President Abdou Diouf explaining the layout, Clinton went through a dark passageway in the house that leads to the infamous "Door of No Return," where countless Africans sold into slavery were forced onto boats for the voyage to the Americas.
There, the two presidents looked out onto the sea. With water lapping at nearby boulders, Clinton stooped down to enter a small cell where slaves had been held. A guide showed him a 22-pound iron ball and chain that once shackled a slave. Clinton hefted the ball and said, "This was on a chain?," adding incredulously, "Some of the people weighed only 60 kilos (132 pounds) and they were carrying this around?"
Before leaving Dakar he met with African human-rights activists and toured the Grand Mosque of Dakar, an imposing green-and-white tile building. In line with Muslim custom, Mrs. Clinton wore a scarf over her head, and all members of the presidential party, including Secret Service agents, removed their shoes for the tour.
Before his stop on Goree, Clinton met in Dakar with nine human right activists from across sub-Saharan Africa. Clinton asked them to think about whether South Africa's approach to national reconciliation, after discarding its aparthid system of racial separation, might serve as a model for other countries on the continent.
Dr. Reginald Matchaba-Hove, chairman of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, said actions such as Clinton's visit to Goree are "important gestures in developing reconciliation."
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