The "House of Slaves" in Senegal tells of the horrors that besieged millions of Africans
US Secretary Visits "Door of No Return" to Remember the Tragedy of the "Slave Trade"
Yellen emphasized that the repercussions of her brutal past continue.
Reuters
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen paid a state visit yesterday to a salmon-colored house on an island off Senegal that is one of the most recognized symbols of the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade that besieged tens of millions of Africans for generations.
Yellen, who is in Senegal as part of a 10-day tour aimed at rebuilding economic relations between the United States and Africa, stood in the Gorée Island building known as the "House of Slaves" and overlooked what is known as the "Door of No Return", through which the Shipping slaves across the Atlantic.
In brief statements during her visit, Yellen said: "Gurieh and the transatlantic slave trade are not just part of African history. They are also part of American history."
Yellen added, “We know that the tragedy did not stop with the generation of people taken from here.
Even after slavery was abolished, black Americans were denied the rights and freedoms promised to them by our Constitution.
Hundreds of years of economic benefits accrued to major slave-trading nations, including the United States, with the advent of unpaid labor, bringing in tens of trillions of dollars, according to research on the trade.
And in the United States, "African slaves" and their children contributed to building the country's most famous institutions, including the White House and Capitol Building, according to the White House Historical Association.
Yellen acknowledged the continuing repercussions of that brutal past.
"In both Africa and the United States, even when we have made great strides, we are still living with the disastrous consequences of the transatlantic slave trade," she said.
"What I take away from this place is the importance of redoubling our commitment to fight for our shared values and principles wherever they are threatened, in the United States, in Africa and around the world... We have more work to do," she added.
Yellen's trip to the island has been made by many dignitaries, including former US presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and former South African President Nelson Mandela. Currently, Gorée Island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In recent years, the US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee has examined how US banks and insurance companies benefited from the practice of slavery before it was outlawed in 1865. There were also hearings on the study and development of compensation proposals in the United States.
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