Mr. Speaker, let me tell this House about my emotional tour through a period of history where African children, women and men were captured, shackled and transported as part of the 18th century slave trade.
This slave colony I visited on Gorée Island is located three miles from Dakar, the capital city of Senegal. The historical site is a reminder of the atrocities, the suffering and the humiliation endured by millions of Black people who were captured against their will, forcibly held, then shoved on to ships to be sold as slaves in the new world.
Iron shackles, leg braces, weight balls, neck and arm locks left behind the reminders of the oppression and the rape of human dignity during this shameful period.
Let us never forget this horrendous human episode. Let Gorée Island stand as a place to remind us, lest we forget that we are all created equal.