Island of Gorée, Senegal, Friday, April 16, 2010
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I bless this day, when I am finally here with you.
I could not imagine a State visit to your country without this opportunity to talk with you, women of Senegal, about your concerns and the vital role you play every day in the development of your communities, your country and your continent.
The status of women is dear to my heart, and as the Governor General of Canada, wherever I go, at home and abroad, I recognize and promote women's key contribution to improving living conditions and advancing the forces of progress.
I like to repeat everywhere, and you may be sure that I never miss an opportunity to do so, that giving women the tools they need means changing the countries they work in for the better.
Throughout the world, women manage to forge a social consensus when it comes to dealing with difficult but essential issues like family planning, the physical integrity of young girls, violence against women, access to education, food security, crime prevention and protection of the environment.
Sisters, I am moved to be speaking with you here on the Island of Gorée, where so many of our ancestors were taken in chains to the Americas and handed over to slavers.
As I did in 2006, at Elmina Castle, before the "Door of No Return," and again in 2008 in the former slave port of Bordeaux in France, I just thought of the millions of African women and men who were scorned by all humanity and stripped of their history, their language, their heritage, their dignity, and above all, their freedom.
I also think of our sisters and brothers in Haiti, my homeland and the poorest country in the Americas, who have recently been so sorely tested, and I remember that my ancestors freed themselves from slavery and established the first black republic in the world.
Sisters of Senegal, the black women of the Americas urge you to make every effort, today and in all parts of the world, to break the chains of injustice and tyranny.
That will be our way of honouring the memory of our ancestors and ensuring that the forces of creation will henceforth win out over the forces of destruction.
It is in that spirit of openness, and inspired by that hope, that I would now like to open with you the dialogue I have been looking forward to for so long.
Sisters of Senegal, you have the floor!
