Obama: Slavery Monument 'Place of Profound Sadness'

President Obama toured the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana today, a shipping-off point for African slaves to America, Reuters reports. He saw the monument as a reminder. “As painful as it is,” the president said, “I think that it helps to teach all of us that we have to do what we can to fight against the kinds of evils that sadly still exist in our world, not just on this continent but in every corner of the globe.”

Obama also spoke of the macabre contradiction inherent to the place. “There's a special sense that on the one hand this place was a place of profound sadness,” he said. “On the other hand, it is here where the journey of much of the African American experience began.” The whole Obama family toured the fort, including the “Door of No Return” where slaves boarded the ships.
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