Vice President Harris’ historic week in Africa to highlight women and economic development

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Vice President Kamala Harris has officially arrived on the continent of Africa. America’s first woman, Black and south Asian president, is currently in Accra, Ghana, and later this week, will visit Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Lusaka, Zambia.   

As a history-maker already, Harris marks further history as the first sitting female, Black and south Asian U.S. vice president to visit the continent.

Harris is fulfilling President Joe Biden’s pledge for him and members of his cabinet to travel to the continent this year after hosting African leaders in December of 2022 for a U.S.-Africa summit, where the administration committed billions of dollars of investments in the region.

During a recent White House press briefing, John Kirby, National Security Council spokesperson, the Biden-Harris administration’s several trips to Africa this year is about relationship building as “we work on this relationship one at a time because every country on the continent is different.”

The African countries planned for the vice president’s visit, and the United States, are working to strengthen issues of national security and economic security through the expansion of access to the digital economy, support of climate adaptation and resilience, and strengthening business ties and investment, including through innovation, entrepreneurship, and the economic empowerment of women. 

“Africa matters, the continent matters, the relationships across the continent matter,” Kirby told members of the press.

This trip is receiving much attention as the vice president plans to travel with several prominent politicians and civilians. The delegation of leaders will only be part of the Ghana leg of Harris’ Africa tour.

U.S. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, filmmakers Spike and Tonya Lee, Morgan State University President David Wilson, National Urban League President Marc Morial and his wife Michelle Miller, and civil rights attorney Ben Crump are some of those in Ghana with VP Harris.

Crump told theGrio that while on the trip, he will meet with his Ghanaian attorney counterparts to discuss “the due process law in America.” The famed attorney plans to be part of the historic trip until April 30. He will return to the United States for the funeral service of Irvo Otieno, the Black man killed while in police custody inside a Virginia hospital.

In Ghana, West Africa, each day of the trip offers a different topic and focus. On Tuesday, Vice President Harris is expected to deliver a major speech to the youth of Ghana. That same day, Harris will visit the Cape Coast slave castle, where she will speak about the brutality of slavery and the African diaspora.

Also, on Tuesday, according to Crump, there will be a “big dinner” thrown by the president of Ghana for the U.S. vice president. Wednesday focuses on women as Harris convenes a roundtable of women entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship and economic empowerment will be the centerpiece for announcing a series of continent-wide public and private sector investments to close the digital gender divide. 

The scheduled topics and events for Harris are being celebrated, particularly focusing on the combination of women and economics. Actor Idris Elba, whose father is from Sierra Leone and mother is from Ghana, said of the Harris visit, “she is a very powerful woman” who is “respected across the continent by other very powerful women on the continent. So I think it will be a great trip for her.”

On Thursday, the Vice President travels to Tanzania, where she will meet with the country’s president and participate in a wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy there. 

Friday, and for the rest of the trip, Harris travels to Zambia, where climate change, business and food security will be the focus. 

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