After outlining his bright hopes for Africas future, U.S. President Barack Obama got a glimpse into one of the darkest chapters of its past -- the transatlantic slave trade. Obama, the USs first black president, took his family for a poignant tour of Cape Coast Castle, a seaside fortress used by slave traders starting in the 17th century and which is now a monument to millions of Africans cast into slavery. He likened his tour of the slave castle to his visit last month to the site of the former Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald in Germany, saying it reminds us of the capacity of human beings to commit great evil. But Obama also suggested that from an African American perspective, seeing Cape Coast was bittersweet. But the visit to Cape Coast was a look back at a darker era of African history for Obama, the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas. His wife Michelle, who accompanied him on the tour along with their two daughters, is the descendant of Africans shipped to America as slaves. While drummers kept up a steady beat outside, Obama and his family toured a dungeon where slaves were kept before being shipped out through a Door of No Return. Outside the fortress, thousands of people, some wearing Obama t-shirts and others in native robes, pushed against police barricades to catch a glimpse of Obamas departure. When he stepped out and waved, the crowd cheered wildly.
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