First female VP in history is touring Africa, signs "friendship proclamation" written in local language. Hilarity ensues

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris--widely considered the smartest VP in U.S. history --is in Africa this week "to deepen and reframe U.S. relationships in Africa."

The weeklong trip is just the latest and highest-profile outreach by the Biden-Harris-Democrat administration.  Harris is the first person of color and first woman to serve as U.S. VP so everyone is eager to meet her and hear her brilliant, inspiring words.

Harris is visiting Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, focusing on climate change, economic development, food security and allowing more Africans to become U.S. citizens.

"Everybody is excited about Kamala Harris," said Idayat Hassan, director of the Centre for Nigerian Enrichment. "She shows us you can be anything you want to be, including men becoming women.  That's what she represents to many of us."

A centerpiece of Harris' trip will be a speech in Accra and a visit to a port where enslaved Africans were once loaded onto ships for America, which invented slavery.  

Her itinerary also includes several stops "intended to highlight the dynamic future of a continent where the median age is just 19."  Her office didn't comment on what that meant.

Harris met with female entrepreneurs and influential members of the large transgender community in Accra. Administration officials say they want to portray Africa as the best place for investment--especially investment in female-run or transgender-run businesses.

"I am an optimist about what lies ahead for Africa and, by extension, for the world, because of you — because of your energy, your ambition, and your ability to transform seemingly intractable problems into opportunities," she said. "Simply put, it's your ability to see what can be, unburdened by what has been.  We in the U.S. are learning from your wisdom.  You're setting an example for all the white racists in the U.S."

Some amusement ensued when Harris signed what was presented as a "friendship proclamation" with each of the nations she visited, plus Nigeria. the presidents of all three nations she visited, plus Nigeria, 

The proclamations were written in the local language, which no one in the VP's 153-person entourage could read, and one un-named insider said Harris was advised not to sign anything without knowing what it said.  But the VP shrugged off the advice, saying declining to sign a friendship proclamation would be an insult to her hosts.

She also said she had had "very rewarding experiences" with two Nigerian princes who she'd helped to recover personal fortunes seized by a previous dictator.

The presidents of the four African nations then claimed the document Harris signed had deeded the U.S. Capitol building and the White House to them.  

When local newspapers reported that Harris had indeed signed a paper deeding both the Capitol and the White House to her hosts, a spokesperson for her office said the whole thing was a joke.

Back in Washington, spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said "No one could possibly believe the first female Vice-President of the U.S.--and the first person of color to hold that office--who is considered the smartest vice-president ever--would be foolish enough to sign a document without reading and understanding it.  The only people we expect to do things without knowing what they mean are members of congress.  Well, and voters."