RAIS OBAMA ALIPOTEMBELEA BANDARI YA ZAMANI ILIYOKUWA IKITUMIKA KUSAFIRISHIA WATUMWA

Obamas at the 'Door of No Return': First Family makes emotional trip to former slaving port in Senegal from where captives were shipped to America - never to see their homeland again
President Barack Obama has spent the afternoon touring a Senegalese island where Africans were shipped across the Atlantic into slavery and he called the visit a 'very powerful moment.'  

Obama says visiting Goree Island Thursday with his family helps them fully appreciate the magnitude of the slave trade. They toured the museum at the Maison des Esclaves where slaves were gathered before going through the 'Door of No Return' and being forced onto ships bound for North America.

Obama also said that, as an African American and an African-American president, the trip gaves him even greater motivation to stand up for human rights around the world, and the visit came just hours after he clashed with his Senegalese hosts over gay rights. 

He said the island is a reminder of what happens when civil rights are not protected. 

Scroll down for video

President Obama said that the visit to the former slave trade hub was important to him as an African American and an African American President tasked with protecting human rights

The Obamas visited Goree Island's Door of No Return where the slaves would embark on their journeys across the Atlantic Ocean

Facing history: President Obama took a tour of Goree Island outside of Dakar, Senegal where slaves used to be depart on boats bound for America in the late 18th century

President Obama was accompanied to Goree Island by his wife Michelle, their eldest daughter Malia, Michelle's mother Marian Robinson and their niece Leslie

Obama peered out at the crashing waves through the island's 'Door of No Return,' at first by himself

Mrs Obama joined him at the poignant doorway, and he said that the visit helped remind them of the importance of protecting civil rights

President Obama has a sombre moment at the Door of No Return

Though the Maison des Esclaves has become a popular tourist destination, it was one of the more minor slave shipping ports in Senegal