Melania Walks Through 'Door of No Return'

First lady is in Ghana
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 3, 2018 11:57 AM CDT
Melania Walks Through 'Door of No Return'
First lady Melania Trump stands in the "Door of No Return" at Cape Coast Castle in Cape Coast, Ghana, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018. Cape Coast Castle was a "slave castle" used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The first lady is visiting Africa on her first solo international trip.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Melania Trump said Wednesday that she "will never forget" her visit to a former slave holding facility on Ghana's coast. She called it "very emotional" and "really something that people should see and experience." The first lady spent nearly an hour on a guided tour of the 17th-century castle, which originally was built by the Swedes for the trading of timber and gold but eventually became a warehouse for slaves shipped to the New World. "The dungeons that I saw, it's really something that people should see and experience," she said after she was asked to reflect on the visit, reports the AP.

The first lady was led around the facility by museum director Kwesi Essel-Blankson. She spent about 10 minutes inside the dark, cramped dungeon where male slaves were housed. She then walked down a pathway leading to the "Door of No Return," where slaves were shipped to the New World with no hope of returning to Africa. She walked out and back through the door with the guide before she laid a wreath, observed a moment of silence and signed a guest book. "It's very emotional," the first lady said before departing. Trump is on her first extended international trip as first lady and hopes to highlight child welfare on the continent. She toured an infant clinic in Accra and met with Ghana's first lady at the presidential palace after she arrived Tuesday. She also has stops planned this week in Malawi, Kenya, and Egypt.

(More Melania Trump stories.)

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