The director of Angola's slavery museum visited The Mariners' Museum in Newport News and Jamestown on Tuesday as part of his trip through the United States arranged by the State Department. In Chicago, he saw a woman re-enact Angolan Queen Njinga, who led her people in revolt against Portuguese slave traders in the 1640s, and at Jamestown he saw museum space devoted to her story.

"Our relationship with the United States can't be based exclusively on trade exchanges and the commercial. Americans buy our petroleum — at a good price right now — and we recently bought 10 Boeing planes, but we also have all these human links," he said. "A cultural exchange will make for a more fair and long-lasting relationship."

His three-week trek has also carried him to South Carolina and to Cincinnati's museum about the Underground Railroad.

On Monday he was surprised by the detail at Colonial Williamsburg, from the live scenes of slavery stories to the reconstructed slave quarters to the small plots of land slaves were allowed to cultivate for their own food.

"I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight. I'll be afraid to awake in a different era," Souindoula said.