Kamala Harris, in Africa, confronts painful past, envisions future

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