US First Lady Melania Trump with Kwesi Essel-Blankson, Museum Educator, at the Cape Coast Castle, a former slave trading fort, in Cape Coast. (AFP)
US First Lady Melania Trump has visited a former slave fort in Ghana on the second day of her solo trip to Africa.
She said the “dungeon is really something that people should see and experience” and “what happened so many years ago is really a tragedy”.
People were kept naked and chained in the 17th Century Cape Coast Castle, waiting to be shipped as slaves.
Mrs Trump’s African tour will include Kenya, Malawi and Egypt and is intended to promote children’s welfare.
President Donald Trump has not visited Africa since taking office in January 2017.
In February, a row broke out after he allegedly used “shithole” to describe some African nations.
Mrs Trump’s week-long trip to the continent is seen as helping to heal some of the divisions.
What has Mrs Trump been doing in Ghana?
The highlight on Wednesday was her tour of Cape Coast Castle, a major outpost on the Atlantic slave trading route.
She first paid a courtesy visit to a local traditional ruler, Osabarimba Kwesi Atta II, meeting him in Obama Hall, named after former US President Barack Obama.
Mr Obama, the first African American president, visited the castle in 2009, with his wife, Michelle, a descendant of African slaves, and their two daughters.
After being shown around the castle and given a history lesson about it, Mrs Trump said: “It’s very emotional. I will never forget [the] incredible experience and the stories that I heard.”
On Tuesday, Mrs Trump visited, alongside Ghana’s First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo, the Ridge Hospital in the capital, Accra.
Mrs Trump observed babies being weighed as part of a project aimed at promoting nutrition in children, which is supported by funding from the US government’s foreign aid organisation, USAid. (BBC)
