Harris, in Africa, confronts painful past, envisions future

By CHRIS MEGERIAN and COLLEEN LONG
Associated Press

CAPE COAST, Ghana (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has visited a site in Ghana where millions of enslaved Africans were held captive before they were loaded onto ships bound for the Americas. During her visit to Cape Coast Castle, Harris insisted on exploring past wounds. She skipped her prepared remarks to talk bluntly about the anguish “that reeks from this place,” and the horrors endured by the people who passed through its walls; mass kidnapping, sickness, rape and death. Those who lived were sold into bondage in the Americas. 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.