5th Anniversary of True Mother’s Visit to Gorée Island

January 19 marks the 5th anniversary of True Mother’s 2018 visit to Gorée Island, where she tearfully prayed for the island’s ancestors and a new heavenly Africa. The small island nation has a painful history serving as the largest slave-trading center on the African coast for 400 years, from the 15th to 19th century.

“I forged a profound relationship with Gorée Island,” wrote True Mother in her memoir, Mother of Peace (2020). “I wanted to visit Gorée Island and liberate the historical agony and heartbreak of all the Africans who suffered due to the scourge of slavery.”

During her speech at the World Africa Summit, held in Senegal the day before visiting Gorée, True Mother said that Africa is the continent that has suffered the most. She later detailed her trip to Gorée in her memoir, recalling how “an intense pain arose in my heart” as she approached the island. “I was already feeling that the bitter tears of grief shed by thousands of captives in transit through the island could fill the world’s oceans,” she wrote. “The beautiful site that we were approaching must be the most sorrowful island in the world.”

Gorée’s mayor, Austin Senghor, welcomed True Mother with open arms as he presented her with the Gorée Island Pilgrim Award. After visiting the island’s House of Slaves and its Door of No Return — a museum and memorial of the Atlantic slave trade and final exit point of slaves from Africa — True Mother returned to West Africa in April 2019 to host a special Marriage Blessing ceremony in Senegal that included Gorée’s deputy mayor.

True Mother has long spoken of the great beauty and mission of the African continent and its people. As we honor the anniversary of her historic visit to Gorée Island and its liberation, let’s remember True Mother’s message of a heavenly unified Africa and world. Below is an excerpt from True Mother’s speech at the World Africa Summit on January 18, 2018.

Africa will become the light of the world. Africa is the blessed continent, the shining light. And today with the heart of a True Mother I have come to pray and eradicate the historical pain that this continent has suffered, and begin a new history... 

This is the continent that will become a new heavenly Africa that will attend God. Africa is the birthplace of humanity ... Centering on this continent and nation, I would like to begin an era centering on altruism, living for the sake of others, an era of peace, equality, happiness — the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. 

Let’s work together to realize this ideal ... I believe Africa can accomplish this, and that is why Africa is the first continent in the world. Africa has the potential to become the original, healthy Kingdom of God and the environment that God wanted to see.

You can learn more about True Mother’s trip to Gorée Island in her memoir available here.