Luanda — The President of the United States Joe Biden arrived Tuesday at the National Slavery Museum in Luanda to visit the facilities of this asset of high historical value.

Located in Morro da Cruz, municipality of Belas, the museum is an important cultural heritage site in Angola, dedicated to preserving the collective memory of the 500 years of slavery to which Angolans were subjected.

Created in 1977 by the National Institute of Cultural Heritage, the museum, which aims to publicize the history of slavery in Angola, has an important information system, and is filled with artifacts of high historical value that preserve and relate the long history of slavery in Angolan territory.

The Slavery Museum is a 17th century temple, where slaves were baptized before boarding the slave ships that took them to the American continent.

The property belonged to the captain of Grenadiers, Dom Álvaro de Carvalho Matoso, knight of the Order of Christ, son of Dom Pedro Matoso de Andrade, captain-general of the Ambaca, Muxima and Massangano prisons, in the then province of Angola, and one of the largest slave traders on the African coast in the first half of the 18th century.

The slave trade in the same place ended in 1836, when a decree by Dona Maria II of Portugal prohibited Portuguese colonies from exporting slaves.

Joe Biden, who is paying a state visit to Angola since Monday, was received, this Tuesday morning, with military honors and greetings by the Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, at the Palácio da Cidade Alta, before the private meeting.

This is the first official visit by a US statesman to Angola and aims to strengthen the strategic relationship between the two countries. VIC/ART/AMP