Obama Visits Cape Coast Castle In Ghana (VIDEO)

CAPE COAST, Ghana President Barack Obama says a slave site reminds him of humanity's potential for "great evil" but also gives him a reason for hope, given the progress African-Americans have made since leaving the castle as slaves.

Obama toured a seaside fortress that the British used as slave dungeons during the 17th century. Obama said the site reminded him of a recent trip to a Nazi concentration camp in Germany.

Obama visited the Cape Coast site with his wife, Michelle and their daughters. Obama says it's important for his girls to learn an obligation to fight oppression and learn about history's cruelty.

He says that no matter how vicious that history might be, it is possible to overcome it.

Comments

[AbrahamSadegh]

For the sake of humanity we need to expand the traditional definition of "slavery" to include any undue constraint of individual's legitimate freedom of choice.

By this definition, slavery exists in one form or another in many nations of the world where the political or religious ideology place hundreds of millions of human being in the straightjacekts of oppressive obedience as China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

Also what else would you call it when one billion human beings have to live on one dollar a day and millions who go hungry every day?

The President also said, "It's important for his girls to learn an obligation to fight oppression and learn about history's cruelty." I hope Malia and Sasha will never have to ask their father, "Dad, is it not oppressive and cruel to keep prisoners indefinitely without charges or trials?"

[carolinhouston]

I object to any redefinition, recharacterization or otherwise watering down of "slavery" as it relates to America. It was indeed a peculiar institution whose effects are felt to this day. I support eliminating human suffering and oppression wherever it is, but I don't believe a rose by any other name necessarily smells as sweet.

[Klimb]

Well said!

[samilli3]

@Jerocrat..or whatever your name is...

Lying will only get you so far....

I am a KENYAN..

Odinga is NOT a muslim..he is an Anglican

Kenyans voted for Raila Odinga..Kibaki rigged the elections...Kenyans wanted Odinga to be the President of Kenya and they voted for him in large numbers and when Kibaki sworn himself to power, we Kenyans had to fight for our democracy in 2007. That is why Odinga is Kenya's PM today.


SO PLEASE STOP YOUR NONSENSE....

[jerocat]

Suppose you are right about Odinga's religion, he signed an agreement with Islamic leaders in Kenya that in return for their political support he would install Sharia Law inside Kenya when he came to power. Sharia Law is an Islamic tool for oppression against all women and non Muslims.

[tisfilm]

Wow, Jerocat has so serious problem with Kenya. Jerocat ha.tes black people, I guess.

[jerocat]

Now the Obama occupies the White House his tactical and financial support for the Odinga campaign reveals his true positions.

[tisfilm]

Where is prove?

[donbrown]

President Obama was born here in Hawaii at Kapiolani Hospital on August 4, 1961.

Several none-too-bright people think he was born in Kenya because his father has the very same name.

Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. WAS born there. Get it straight, Jerocrat..

Another falsehood is that then Senator Obama went to Kenya in 2007.

Wrong.

He went in August, 2006 to burnish his foreign policy credentials and spoke frankly about the impending civil war there -- a very courageous thing to do. He was non-partisan, however, to the Luo tribe's dismay, contradicting another Jerocrat fallacy. His major foreign policy message there addressed the AIDS crisis and the importance of being tested. He and Michelle mades headlines because they were tested there

A film was made of the trip if you don't believe me. I showed it here in Honolulu during his vacation in Honolulu last August, the true place of his birth:

Click here to view, and learn something: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrdhwcxj92k

[tisfilm]

I told you, jerocat is jer.lous.

[jerocat]

John McCain is a foreign born US citizen. Foreign born US citizens can be Senators and Congressmen but, according to the US Constitution only citizens born of US citizens (both mother and father) and born on US soil (not under the jurisdiction of any foreign government) may be Commander in Chief and President of the USA.

McCain's greed to be POTUS along with his ineligibility silenced his political party from highlighting the disqualities of Obama's citizenship status. As a result Obama continues to conceal his identity documents. His occupation of the White House is, legally speaking, fraud.

[wanttruth]

An American citizen DOESN'T need both parents to be US citizens to be considered a 'naturalized' US citizen.

[jerocat]

Bigamy and polygamy are crimes in the USA. Pregnant with his child Stanley Ann Dunham went to Kenyan where she was exposed to her new husband's other wife (wives.) In the USA her future newborn child would be the child of a criminal if born in the USA. In Kenya Barack H. Obama Sr. wasn't a criminal and therefor the child would be born to father who was not a criminal. Or maybe her mother didn't care about his criminal status at all but just wanted to meet the family.

Was she permitted on a commercial flight while 9 months pregnant back in 1961? Some say, No. His Kenyan grandmother says she saw Stanley Ann Dunham give birth to baby Barack in Kenya that summer.

Whatever happened, she didn't like it. Divorce followed shortly thereafter.

[USADownUnder]

Jerocat - absolutely lives up to that saying:

"A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing in the hands of a fool"

[jerocat]

You are right he did go to Kenya in 2006. Photographs, newspaper and TV news reports illustrate his direct involvement in the political campaign of Raila Odinga for Prime Minister.

You don't know where Obama was born and neither do I. It is an easy fact that his father was Kenyan.

The State of Hawaii does not have Obama's permission to release copies of his identity documents in their files. We do know that in 1961 Hawaii had the practice by law of issuing Certificates of Live Birth to specifically foreign born babies. It's not the same thing as a bona fide birth certificate. Though his army of attorneys Obama has spent about a million dollars to fight the release of his identity documents on file there. It costs about $12 to get a bona fide copy. Some of his Indonesia identity documents have already been obtained and made public.

He was enrolled at Occidental College in Los Angeles as Barry Soetoro, citizen of Indonesia.

[amiri1]

Thank you President Obama for the trip to Ghana. If you wouldn't have traveled there many people in the world would not have ever known the original British slavers fortess called Cape Coast Castle is preversed to serve as a reminder of the evils of slavery. Thank you for this day of rememberance and discussion, positive or negative. The dialogue is important.

[wanttruth]

Well said.

[wanttruth]

Good post. I agree.

[GravitonX]

The story of some Africans capturing other Africans for the purpose of enslavement only tells half the story. The universal threat of enslavement of any Black in African was everpresent. Europeans would threaten African tribes with enslavement, harm, or death of a themselves or family members if the men did not assist in the location and capture of other Africans. Often, this only bought the threatened Africans time before they themselves were forced onto the ships bound for the Americas. The revisionist history is that Europeans simply landed in Africa as innocent participants, albeit behind the walls heavily weaponized fortresses, in the age old practice of slavery in Africa. The truth is that they were anything but innocent and every bit the initiator and propagator of an apocalyptic system that existed for hundreds of years and that would leave tens of millions dead, entire societies wiped out or crippled, and a continent in ruin.

[Klimb]

So, bringing christianity to Africa in the early 17th-18th century was partially a tactic to capture Africans and make them slaves...POTUS's speech about the church atop the slave dungeons further proves why today there are more and more "atheists". In other words, the "foundation (some architecture)" of this particular church was based or sitting on human torture and imprisonment.

The internet has become a faster teacher to the world in such a way that many issues/ documentations that were censored from our midsts for centuries or stored thousands of miles away can today be retrieved by just a "click"...BUT we should all appreciate technology b/c this maybe the MEDIUM for WE the world to reconcile OUR differences.

Indeed what a world! Like a friend always says, "one learns something new daily unless one is six feet under (nobody knows that either)"

[Klimb]

GravitonX,
BTW...my response above was only meant to supplement your points. The "So" at start of my thread makes it seem like I'm questioning your points...not at all.

[ppp1604]

Black Republican claims Martin King was a Republicrite.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31866124#31866124

[AFAN]

If he was then he would be consider to be too moderate for the party.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCxZilcBSTo

[NJ13]

MLK never really subscribed to a political party; however, his father and mother were Republicans. Many blacks back then were Republican being that the it was the Republican Party, that openly registered blacks to vote in the south back then, NOT Democrats.

In addition, if you study the history of the civil rights movement in America, what occurred in the 50's and 60's could be considered the second Civil Rights movement. The first began during Reconstruction in the 19th century, where it was the Republican Party of Lincoln that was at the forefront of creating a strong state in the south to protect the rights of African Americans.

What amazes me is that black people in America are far more conservative and are actually more in line with the Republican platform. True Republican's like Ron Paul and Colin Powell and NOT the Rush Limbaugh type crazies are what the Republican Party is about. The image of the party has been tarnished by these extremists that purport themselves to be Republican when they are merely overzealous, right-wing NEOCONS.

[AFAN]

MLK father ended up voting for JFK after Richard Nixon refuse to denounce the unjust jailing of his son for boycotting a restraunte that refused to allow blacks to eat their and since then many blacks have voted for the Democratic Party while the GOP allowed the Dixiecrat into the party.

[tisfilm]

When LBJ signed Civil Right Bill in1964. LBJ was Democrats. Also, The Deep South, Many Deep South White people were Democrats. The Black people were Republican. After 1964, Black people become Democrats. And the Deep South white people became Republican.
That's so interested history.

[Kelley Smith]

American slavery was a very unique system in comparison to other forms of slavery practiced throughout history. The effects we still see today. The following is a list of the unique qualities of American slavery:

1. Enslaved Africans could not by law marry.
2. Enslaved Africans could not by law raise their children.
3. Enslaved Africans could not by law become educated.
4. Enslaved Africans could not by law retire due to illness or age
5. Enslaved Africans could not purchase their freedom
6. Enslaved African men could not head their families.
7. Enslaved African women could not be monogamous.

Slavery existed and still exists all over the world--even recorded in the bible, however families were intact. Men and women were allowed to marry and raise their children in a family. Slaves were educated and old slaves were retired. American slavery was indeed a unique system.

[GravitonX]

"Slavery existed and still exists all over the world--even recorded in the bible, however families were intact. Men and women were allowed to marry and raise their children in a family."

The form of Slavery practiced in the Americas was known as Chattel Slavery, a particularly evil form of slavery in which humans are basically farm animals and all systems of society and thought are devoted to the maintenance of the animal status. The myth is that the enslavement in Africa, typically involving POWs or individuals working off a debt, was anything like slavery in the Americas. Nothing could be further from the historical truth.

[carolinhouston]

Yes, in chattel slavery, the enslaver did not just own the individual's labor, he owned HIM, period -- his body, mind and spirit, all of which were broken. Historically, individuals from various strata of society could be "slaves," doctors as well as common laborers. However, in chattel slavery the single, overriding jqualification was the darkness of the skin color, African skin. To support this, "Christian" enslavers (their particular brand of it) used the Bible as justification. Frederick Douglass, in his slave narrative, wrote that the great contradiction were the white enslavers who went to church on Sunday and yet forbade the enslaved ones to even so much as read the Bible.

[thelipstickfemme]

Thank for posting these facts about US slavery. People don't know their own history and make grand assumptions and blame the victim.

[MyIrishEyes]

Ask the Irish about Irish slaves in the New World sometime. You really don't know your history!

-Irish

[LotusDoll]

My previous comment is directed to JEROCAT.

[carolinhouston]

One of the things that I truly lament about the United States is that, as great as it has been in its history, it has yet to reach its potential as a nation. Its greatness is always diminished by the wasted energy associated with hatred, prejudice and bigotry. It is frustration to read these blogs sometimes; an interesting discussion ensues, then a hateful statement is made by someone just for the heck of it. I want to ask some people sometimes if the persons with whom they disagree have done something to them personally. The vitriol on here is often so disappointing. I wonder, has President Obama done something personally to people on here? Some of the unfounded, unproven things said on here about him are downright diabolical.

Can't we all get along?

[ghtrains]

Nicely said.

[LotusDoll]

If you knew any Africans or had African friends you would undoubtedly know that he is referring to the village of his father's community as "his" cultural and African birthplace. As an African American, how many times have I been welcomed "home" by Africans on the continent. Stop trying to perpetuate and incite your weak hopeless fear by insinuating Obama will undermine the United States by mere virtue of he being half African.

By the way Your tax money also paid for depleted uranium laced bombs that were dropped on many innocent Iraquis displacing them for millions of years to the land they consider their historical birthright and causing birth defects. Are you upset at that?

[THE JEDI 69]

HEy global warning.. you like writing your own history....because self delusion must be your favorite topic....re-write it all you want but man the truth hurts don't it......we have a black President and your afraid....you should be..because this one is a game changer..for the better..Obama 2012

[larce1948]

Yes, this is pointless snarkiness but enough of trying to reason with or be nice to Rpugs.
If Barbara Bush had toured this site she might have said "Well it looks very cozy, probably much nicer than that awful jungle.

[globalwarmingisafraud]

So this is the place the British would keep the Africans they bought from other African tribes?

[smit9187]

The shame is in the buying.

[michaleenflynn]

Really, smit? No shame in the kidnapping and selling of human beings?

[flapjack]

No shame in the enslavement, huh? Just in buying? Interesting.

[fraught]

And from where the British would bring them to America to sell them to tribes of white farmers. What's your point?

[globalwarmingisafraud]

Not downplaying any aspect but it always seems to be lost that African tribes would conquer other Africans and use them as slaves and then later sold their own to the white man.

[Kwame Sefa]

how about this my friend; "So this is the place the British would torture the Africans they took away from the other African tribes?"........Maybe you should study slavery in Africa, how different it is from the slavery practiced elsewhere. ... I wouldn't even call it slavery in a normal sense in my language but for the lack of a better word in the English language i would call it as such....

[len501]

Thank you for trying to educate some of these folks. In seeking to absolve whites of blame in the slave trade, they have used collective guilt, moral equivalency and even the argument that it was better for them to be brought to the west. It's shameful and shameless, but unfortunately, not surprising.

[Northlite]

My God! The man thinks before he speaks. What a thoughtful and compassionate person.

As myself a person of Jewish heritage, I liked the way he compared his visit to Buchenwald to today's to the Castle, and referred to the forced-in-chains dispersion of Africans by using the word "diaspora." We are all human beings--many of our elders and ancestors have known oppression through no fault of their our own. And yesterday it was the Pope, and without the rabid anti-abortion obsessed hysterics. And the day before, the most powerful leaders on the planet. He is not perfect on a goodly number of my issues, and his challenges are many. But I am very proud of him. Glad I voted for him.

I also learn from Obama, his intelligence and leadership style. He is calm. Not petty or vindictive. Thoughtful. These are traits that all of us can do better at in our professional and personal lives.

[smit9187]

Agreed!

[eden4barack08]

Well said.

[roshni]

Absolutely.

[robbep]

in a lot of ways he is a much better leader than we deserve. he refuses to get drawn into the bickering and sniping that we have become accustomed to.

[TheMacIsCrazy]

Very well said.

[Beecher]

The Cairo speech to the Muslim world, the "reset" speech to the Russians, and this African address, are part of an astounding turnabout since Bush. If Obama keeps going like this, we will really begin to see a better basis for foreign relations.

I am very proud today of the President of the United States. This is what leadership looks like. We have not seen this in so long, it is hard to comprehend. I hope this continues for the next 7 1/2 years.

[bilmardre]

Agreed.

[rubygreen]

Co-sign.

[scottiex2]

MEGA DITTOES !!!!

[WorldGoneWild]

Ima throw in an Amen!!

[1088]

Spot on!

[6925thCobras]

are you also proud that he is continuing GWB's policy of using drones in Pakistan? The US has recently killed over 500 innocent civilians in order to net 14 low level enemy terrorists.

Obama is on the threshhold of being a very fine President but when he continues policies like this and not disclosing the White House visitors log it makes you wonder who he is playing.

[fuelrod]

Bush was more popular than Clinton in Africa...

[tisfilm]

No you re wrong

[chitown8]

Say who?

You know Iraq is part of Africa right.

[robbep]

no he wasnt but he shldve been. Bush spent millions fighting aids in africa and clinton turned a blind eye to the genocide in Rawanda.

[donbrown]

Yes... notice the Republicans are VERY loathe to acknowledge the uprising of the young people in Iran is partly attributable to Obama's exceptional Cairo speech a few days before their election.

They were emboldened by his rhetoric and "reset" of the American attitude toward their country...but mention the right wing and they will vehemently deny it.

THEY DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH,,,because to admit that Obama had a positive effect, is to challenge their whole mindset that the ONLY answer to the world's problems is brute force --

In their minds diplomacy and reasoning are signs of weakness. They will go to their graves believing this--and if they succeed in convincing the rest of the country, maybe sooner than later.

[smit9187]

So true!

[roshni]

True. And Lebanon too.

[phylliscooper1]

I worry about the pendulum effect in our nation. When we seem to progress under the leadership of a President like Obama an undercurrent exists and in the next election cycle there is a resurgence of the religious right extremists. Since we have seldom had a leader who is such a great ambassador of our people and to the world, I sincerely hope that the opposition does not gain a strangle hold. The responsibility of those of us who support our president and the greater good has never been more important.