    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [April 2, 1998]
    [Pages 494-497]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at Goree Island, Senegal
    April 2, 1998

        Thank you, Mr. President, for that
    magnificent address. Thank you so much.
        Now, all my friends will have to tell me if the translation is
    working. Yes, it's working? [Applause] Hurray!

    [[Page 495]]

        Mr. President, Madame Diouf, the ministers and officials of the Senegalese
    Government, Governor, Mayor; to the students who are here who have sung to us and
    with whom we have met from the Martin Luther King School, the John F.
    Kennedy School, the Miriama Ba School here on Goree Island, and the
    Margaret Amidon Elementary School in Washington, DC; the residents of
    Goree Island, the citizens of Senegal, my fellow Americans and our
    delegation, ladies and gentlemen. I'd also like to say a special word of
    thanks to the curator, Boubacar N'diaye, who toured me through the Slave House today. Thank
    you, sir.
        Here, on this tiny island in the Atlantic Ocean, Africa and America
    meet. From here, Africa expands to the east, its potential for freedom
    and progress as great as its landmass. And to the west, over the
    horizon, lies America, a thriving democracy built, as President Diouf
    said, through centuries of sacrifice.
        Long after the slave ships stopped sailing from this place to
    America, Goree Island, still today, looks out onto the New World,
    connecting two continents, standing as a vivid reminder that for some of
    America's ancestors the journey to America was anything but a search for
    freedom, and yet still a symbol of the bright new era of partnership
    between our peoples.
        In 1776, when our Nation was founded on the promise of freedom as
    God's right to all human beings, a new building was dedicated here on
    Goree Island to the selling of human beings in bondage to America. Goree
    Island is, therefore, as much a part of our history as a part of
    Africa's history. From Goree and other places, Africa's sons and
    daughters were taken through the door of no return, never to see their
    friends and families again. Those who survived the murderous middle
    passage emerged from a dark hold to find themselves, yes, American. But
    it would be a long, long time before their descendants enjoyed the full
    meaning of that word.
        We cannot push time backward through the door of no return. We have
    lived our history. America's struggle to overcome slavery and its legacy
    forms one of the most difficult chapters of that history. Yet, it is
    also one of the most heroic, a triumph of courage, persistence, and
    dignity. The long journey of African-Americans proves that the spirit
    can never be enslaved.
        And that long journey is today embodied by the children of Africa
    who now lead America, in all phases of our common life. Many of them
    have come here with me on this visit, representing over 30 million
    Americans that are Africa's great gift to America. And I'd like them to
    stand now. Please stand. [Applause]
        A few hours from now, we will leave Africa and go on home, back to
    the work of building our own country for a new century. But I return
    more convinced than when I came here that despite the daunting
    challenges, there is an African renaissance.
        I will never forget as long as I live the many faces that Hillary
    and I have seen in these last 12 days. In them, I have seen beauty and
    intelligence, energy and spirit, and the determination to prevail. I
    have seen the faces of Africa's future: the friendly faces of the
    hundreds of thousands of people who poured into Independence Square in
    Accra to show that Africans feel warmly toward America; the faces of the
    children at the primary school in Uganda, whose parents were held back
    by a brutal dictatorship but where today opportunity of education is
    offered to all of that nation's boys and girls; the faces of the women
    in Wanyange village in Uganda, once ordained to a life of continuing
    struggle, now empowered--along with 10,000 other Ugandans and women and
    men in Senegal and virtually every other country in Africa--by
    microcredit loans to start their own businesses, small loans which
    people repay and which repay them by giving them the opportunity to live
    a better life.
        I will always remember the faces of the survivors of the Rwandan
    genocide, who have the courage now not just to survive but to build a
    better society.
        I will never forget the face of Nelson Mandela in his cell on Robben Island, a face that betrays a
    spirit not broken but strengthened, not embittered but energized, a man
    used his suffering to break the shackles of apartheid and now to reach
    toward reconciliation.
        I remember the faces of the young leaders I have met: young leaders
    of the new South Africa; young leaders who want to build a continent
    where the economy grows, but where the environment is preserved and your
    vast riches that nature has bestowed are no longer depleted; young
    leaders who believe that Africa can go forward as a free, free
    continent, where people--all people--enjoy universal human rights. I
    remember their faces so well.

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        I remember the faces of the entrepreneurs, African and American, who
    gatherer with me in Johannesburg to dedicate Ron Brown Commercial
    Center. I thank you, Mr. President, for mentioning our friend Ron Brown,
    for it was he who first told me that I had an obligation as an American
    President to build a better partnership with Africa.
        Already, we import about as much oil from Africa as we do from the
    Persian Gulf. We export more to Africa than to all the former Soviet
    Union. And Americans should know that our investments in sub-Saharan
    Africa earn a return of 30 percent, higher than on any other continent
    in the entire world. But our trade and investment in Africa is but a
    tiny fraction of what it could be, and, therefore, of what it could
    produce in new jobs, new opportunities, new wealth, and new dreams for
    Africans and for Americans. The faces I saw will spur us to do better.
        Mr. President, I remember the faces of the
    Senegalese soldiers yesterday, whom we saw training with Americans but
    led by Africans, in an African Crisis Response Initiative dedicated to
    the prevention of violence, to the relief of suffering, to keeping the
    peace on the continent of Africa.
        Most of all, I will always remember in every country the faces of
    the little children, the beautiful children, the light in their eyes,
    the smiles on their faces, the songs that they sung. We owe it to them,
    you and I, to give them the best possible future they can have.
        Yes, Africa still faces poverty, malnutrition, disease, illiteracy,
    unemployment, terrible conflicts in some places. In some countries,
    human rights are still nonexistent and unevenly respected in others. But
    look across the continent. Democracy is gaining strength. Business is
    growing. Peace is making progress. The people and the leaders of Africa
    are showing the world the resiliency of the human spirit and the future
    of this great continent.
        They have convinced me of the difference America can make if we are
    a genuine partner and friend of Africa, and the difference a new Africa
    can make to America's own future.
        Everywhere I went in Africa I saw a passionate belief in the promise
    of America, stated more eloquently today by your President than I ever
    could. I only wish every American could see our own country as so much
    of Africa see us, a nation bearing the ideals of freedom and equality
    and responsible citizenship, so powerful they still light the world; a
    nation that has found strength in our racial and ethnic and religious
    diversity; a nation, therefore, that must lead by the power of example;
    a nation that stands for what so many aspire to and now are achieving,
    the freedom to dream dreams and the opportunity to make those dreams
    come true.
        I am very proud of America's ties to Africa, for there is no area of
    American achievement that has not been touched by the intelligence and
    energy of Africa, from science to medicine, to literature, to art, to
    music. I am proud to be the President of a nation of many colors, black
    and white, European and Latino, Asian and Middle Eastern, and everything
    in between. We have learned one clear lesson, that when we embrace one
    another across the lines that divide us, we become more than the sum of
    our parts, a community of communities, a nation of nations. Together, we
    work to face the future as one America, undaunted, undivided, grateful
    for the chance to live together as one people.
        To be sure, our work is not finished and we have our own problems.
    But when we began as a nation, our Founders knew that, and called us
    always to the work of forming a more perfect Union. But the future
    before us expands as wide as the ocean that joins, not divides, the
    United States and Africa. As certainly as America lies over the horizon
    behind me, so I pledge to the people of Africa that we will reach over
    this ocean to build a new partnership based on friendship and respect.
        As we leave this island, now is the time to complete the circle of
    history to help Africa to fulfill its promise not only as a land of rich
    beauty but as a land of rich opportunity for all its people. If we face
    the future together, it will be a future that is better for Africa and
    better for America.
        So we leave Goree Island today mindful of the large job still to be
    done, proud of how far we have come, proud of how far Africa has come,
    determined to succeed in building a bright, common destiny whose door is
    open to all.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:25 p.m. in the front courtyard of the
    Goree Island History Museum. In his remarks, he referred to President
    Abdou Diouf of Senegal and his wife, Elizabeth; Gov. Yande Toure of
    Dakar; Mayor Urbain

    [[Page 497]]

    Diagne of Goree Island; and Boubacar (Joseph) N'diaye, curator, Slave
    House.