President Joe Biden on Tuesday, during his diplomatic trip to Angola, acknowledged the “original sin” of slavery in America and the slave trade it was once associated with. United States and the African nation.
“I have learned that while history can be hidden, it cannot and should not be erased,” Biden said. “It must be faced. It is our duty to face our history. The good, the bad and the ugly. The whole truth. That’s what great nations do.”
The statements were made at the National Slavery Museum, where millions of African slaves were baptized before being chained to ships for the journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
“We are gathering in a solemn location to fully consider how far our two countries have come in our friendship because we need to remember how we began,” Biden said outside the museum on a rainy afternoon.
President Joe Biden speaks during a visit to the National Slavery Museum in Morro da Cruz, near Luanda, on December 3, 2024.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
“We hear it in the wind and the waves: young women, young people born free in the mountains of Angola, captured, bound and forced to this place by slave traders on a deadly march along this coast in 1619,” Biden said.
The White House announced earlier this week, when Biden arrived in Angola, that it was providing a $229,000 grant to help restore and preserve the museum.
The diplomatic trip aims to deepen the relationship between the two countries and is the first visit to Angola by a sub-Saharan leader since President Barack Obama in 2015.
President Joe Biden speaks during a visit to the National Slavery Museum in Morro da Cruz, near Luanda, on December 3, 2024.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Biden kicked off his visit earlier Tuesday in Luanda with a bilateral meeting with President João Lourenco.
The two men discussed trade and economic opportunities, protecting democracy and growing the US-Angola relationship, according to the White House.
Biden celebrated further cooperation in his remarks, saying that it is “as strong as it has ever been” and that “the United States is engaged in the future of Africa.”
“The story of Angola and the United States has a lesson for the world: two nations with a shared history of evil human slavery, two nations on opposite sides of the Cold War defining struggle of the late 20th century,” Biden. he said “And now two nations standing shoulder to shoulder, working together every day for the benefit of our people.”
“It’s a reminder that a nation doesn’t have to be forever bereft of all the adversaries and evidence of another testament to the human capacity for reconciliation — the horrors of slavery and war that there is a way forward,” Biden added.
President Joe Biden shakes hands with Angolan President Joao Lourenco at the presidential palace in the capital Luanda on December 3, 2024.
Ben Curtis/AP
President Joe Biden reviews an honor guard as he arrives at the presidential palace in Luanda, Angola, on December 3, 2024.
Ampe Rogerio/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
On Wednesday, Biden will visit part of the partially US-funded Lobito rail corridor, which will help transport goods and materials across Africa – a development seen as a way to counter China’s influence in the region.
White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby announced the project in an interview with ABC News’ Alex Presha.
Kirby said the administration was “very confident that the Lobito Corridor will succeed,” noting that it is a multilateral effort with the help of US allies and that it benefits American companies that will build part of the railway at home before transporting it to Africa.
On top of Biden’s historic visit, however, was the decision to pardon Hunter Biden’s son. Biden did not respond to reporters’ questions about the pardon while in Angola.
Asked if the pardon has diverted attention from Biden’s trip, Kirby said Biden is “focused on what matters, again, not just to the people of Angola and the continent, but to the American people.”
ABC News’ John Parkinson contributed to this report.
