US First Lady, Melania Trump tours former slave trading fort in Ghana

US First Lady Melania Trump tours former slave trading fort in Ghana on Wednesday, the second day of her maiden solo tour of Africa promoting her children’s welfare programme.

“Akwaaba (Welcome) to Cape Coast,” read a sign hung from the whitewashed walls of the Cape Coast Castle, some 145 kilometres (90 miles) from the capital, Accra.

But there were signs that the soft diplomatic push was yet to take off locally, as comparisons were drawn to the visit of former US president Barack Obama and his family in 2009.

“The interest is very, very muted and subdued. There are a lot of people (in Ghana) who are extremely indifferent about this visit,” political commentator Etse Sikanku told AFP.

A relaxed and smiling Melania Trump arrived in Accra from Washington on Tuesday to a red-carpet welcome of traditional dancing and flag-waving schoolchildren.

In a day of engagements as part of her “Be Best” campaign in education and healthcare, she handed out teddy bears to newborns and met her Ghanaian counterpart, Rebecca Akufo-Addo.

The highlight of Wednesday’s itinerary was the tour of Cape Coast Castle, a major outpost on the Atlantic slave trading route, where she also met members of the local Fante tribe.

The imposing fort on the windswept coast, where untold numbers of people were kept in dark dungeons before being shipped overseas, is now on the UNESCO World Heritage List.




It has seen a steady increase in visitors since Obama and his family toured the site.

Obama — whose photo now adorns the wall of a hall renamed in his honour — said at the time that the cells were a reminder that “sometimes we can tolerate and stand by great evil even as we think that we are doing good”.