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Today, President Clinton spends his last day in Africa
in Senegal. During the morning, the President participates in a
panel discussion with democracy and human rights activists.
Later in the day, the President visits Goree
Island.
Panel Discussion with Democracy and Human
Rights Activists
In Dakar, the President convenes a panel of leading
democracy and human rights activists from around Africa for an in-depth
discussion about how to strengthen the elements of civil society and promote
good governance. Acentral element of the President's trip to Africa has been
engaging the African people in ways to protect and advance human rights and
democratic participation. The issues of promoting human rights, women's
emancipation,credible judiciary and freedom of the press were key items on the
agenda of the Entebbe Summit and throughout the President's bilateral
meetings.
Goree Island
The final
stop on the President and First Lady's trip to Africa is a tour of the Slave
House at Goree Island. Located just two miles off the coast of Dakar, Goree
[GOR-ray] Island (meaning "good harbor") stands as one ofthe symbols of
Africa's past and its links to the Americas. Goree served as a transit point for
many West African slaves en route to the New World.The island was also the site
of the first U.S. Consulate in West Africa, established in 1883. Similar slave
houses dot west Africa's coast. UNESCO has declared Goree a "World Heritage
Site."
Goree Island is home to about 1,300 Senegalese. The Portuguese
explorer Bartholemeu Dias in 1444 is credited with the first European sighting
ofthe island, in 1444. The Dutch purchased it from the local chief in 1586,and
named the island Goree. The French took control of Goree in the 17th century,
and it eventually became the principal site for French-flagslavers and
merchants traveling along the West African coast. After the French abolished
slavery in 1856 in their overseas possessions, Goree became an outpost for
policing the seas and later a base for French colonial expansion into West
Africa.
The Slave House (Maison des Esclaves) is the only remaining site
on Goree Island where Africans were brought to be loaded onto ships bound for
theAmericas. Built in 1776 by a wealthy slave-trading family, it now serves as a
museum and memorial to the many slaves who were sold into a life of bondage in
the Americas.
The upper floor consisted of residential quarters for
slave traders.Slaves held in the cells below were weighed, chained and
inhumanly cramped into the small cell areas, before departing through the "door
of no return"(the small entrance way leading to the slave ships).
The
President is shown the Slave House by curator Joseph Ndiaye [in-JAI],whose
personal commitment and perseverance are responsible for the maintenance of the
museum. He has personally shown the house and described its past to many world
leaders and to the First Lady when she visited in March
1997. | 
