this is bbc news. the headlines: president biden has said he told saudi arabia's crown prince mohammed bin salman that he thought he was personally responsible for the murder of the journalistjamal khashoggi. mr biden said the prince denied ordering the killing in his country's consulate in istanbul four years ago. fires are continuing to burn out of control as parts of europe endure record—breaking temperatures. in france, thousands of people remain evacuated from their homes almost a week after the first blazes broke out. in portugal, the entire country has been put on alert. the five contenders in the contest to be the conservative party leader and the next british prime minister have taken part in their first live televised debate. the candidates were asked a range of questions from a studio audience on issues including tax

and the nhs. now on bbc news, de—graft mensah travels to ghana, the country of his family's heritage to find out about the legacy of the british empire on the country and its people. i'm de—graft mensah — podcaster, presenter and proud british ghanaian. i'm going to be leaving to west africa for the first time since i was nine. the murder of george floyd and the anti—racism protests that followed led people to start to question britain's history, as well as its actions abroad when it had an empire. and it led me to want to find out more. i know that ghana used to be part of the british empire, so i want to discover what that meant for the country. i want to learn why britain

made ghana part of its empire, how it affected the ghanaian people, and what impact it had on my own family. i've made the 3,000 milejourney to accra, the capital of ghana, somewhere i've not been since i was a kid. you know what? it feels so... it feels comforting because i'm seeing people that look like me, that talk like my family and i'm seeing just, like, loads of people on the roadsides, selling, it's vibrant. but, ultimately, the goal is finding out what the british empire was all about.

asi as i travelled through accra, i don't have to look far before i see a physical reminder of the legacy of empire. right here is this, the freedom just as art, and it was celebration for the ghanaians to remind them of their independence from the british empire. so, when it comes to my personal knowledge of the british empire, owner much as i was taught in school. i know that we had an empire, it ruled countries all around the world but growing up, it was a of told to me as something to be celebrated. i want to know whether the empire is something to be proud of. and what living under the empire was like for everyday ghanaian people, like my own family. so, to get started, i'm heading away from accra and heading to a rural community along the coast. it's where a lot of my family were born and it is where my gran still lives today. if i am

exploring the british empire and how it has affected ghana, i in the sense and write in the middle of that story. i've got the british lied to me and i've got the ghanaian side to me so what better way to tour the ghanaian side of me than to meet one of my family members who was around about time but also who i directly come from? it's weird because i have not seen her in the flesh since i was a little kid and now, i am a full—grown person, so i'm really excited. i'm really excited. hello, grandma. hello.

i will be chatting to my grandma with the help of a translator and first, she wants to know about myjob. i work for the bbc as a journalist and i present a tv programme. i'm still quite young, so i'm not thinking about marriage. so, when you were younger, what were the attitudes from people in ghana towards the british? did people like being ruled under them? or were people sort of resentful against them?

do you think that the british being in control of ghana, do you think that was a good thing that happened or a bad thing? what were other members of ourfamily doing? what kind ofjobs did people have? it was great to see my grandma again, and i have learnt loads. that my family have farmed here for as long as anyone can remember. although helping my cousin george on the farm has shown me that i've not picked up the farming gene. hey, guys, move.

i'm trying to feed you! i've learned that my grandma is pretty positive about the british, but i thought it was really interesting that my grandma also raised the topic of slavery. my family live near the coast and i know that trade in enslaved people did go on here, so i want to know more. nearby, historian kweku has information for me about the relationship between the people living in this area, known as the fantes, and visiting europeans. so, kweku, i wanted to chat to you to get a greater understanding of what was happening in ghana during the empire, but also what my family were doing. and apparently you have all the knowledge. so fill me in, what's going on? so within this area, it was what we call the british domain. so, the british were occupying here. what? in this very area? in this very area. 0k! so let me get this straight, then, because how i always envisioned the empire —

i envisioned that the british came over and just captured everything and said, "this is ours." so let me correct an impression here. the europeans didn't come and then grab everything. first, they signed agreements with the locals. 0k. so, it was not that they came and just grabbed. yeah. so, i guess that answers how the british became in control of certain areas of ghana but i still don't quite understand where my family fits into all of this. yeah, so back in the day, mostly they were engaged in farming and then fishing because the fantes do two things — fishing and farming, and then sell it to the british. ah, 0k. but whilst europeans had first arrived in the area to trade in goods like gold or foodstuffs, over time, trade became far more sinister through the buying and selling of enslaved human beings — something known as the transatlantic slave trade. i have a document here of the young man you see. yeah. his name is 0ttobah cugoano. this gentleman was from ajumako, which is close to your home town in enyan abaasa.

enyan abaasa, yeah. amazingly, 0ttobah wrote about his experience, and i'm holding a copy of his first—hand account. this is heartbreaking. i didn't want to go to the forest. i was worried that something bad might happen to us there. after a couple of hours, we were approached by a group of men. they pretended they meant us no harm. but before too long, they used weapons and kidnapped us. i was taken on a long journey, away from my home and family. eventually, my captors took me to a castle on the coast. i can't remember its name. i asked a man why i was here, and he replies, "to learn the ways of the white man". he handed me over to

the guards from the castle. in return, he was given a gun, a piece of cloth and some lead. this made me cry bitterly, and i was taken to a prison for three days, where i could just hear the cries and moans of other prisoners. a vessel arrived to take us. it was the most horrible scene. there was nothing to be heard but the rattling of chains, smacking of whips and the gruesome cries of our fellow men. i was brought from a state of innocence and freedom and converted to a state of horror and slavery. reading this... ..it�*s hard. to know that somebody who was 13 at the time, who came from very close

to where my family are from, went through all of this... this is disgusting. it's disgusting. it makes me wonder, would there be moments where my family ever had at the back of their mind that, "yes, we're trading, but we too... "we could be captured"? i want to know more about the kind of fort 0ttobah would have been taken to, so kwaku has arranged for me to see elmina castle — one of the largest and oldest forts in the area. whilst it's located in an idyllic setting, elmina played a role in one of the darkest chapters of human history. 0riginally built by the portuguese, elmina was used by several european nations to imprison enslaved people before they were transported across the atlantic. inside, i'm going to be shown around by essie.

so, essie, where are we right now? ok, so this right here was a mill slave courtyard. this is where they bought and sold the slaves. what, as in, like, right here? right here. wow. so, right here, we have the largest female slave dungeon. it held about 150 of the female slaves. 150? yes. once they got in here, this is the floor they slept on — the same floor they had to urinate. the food was poured onto the dirty floor and they had to eat from the dirty floor. because of that, a lot of the female slaves — the male slaves as well — died, because this place was very, very dirty. it takes...

for me, hearing all of that, for somebody to do that to somebody else, that's just plain... it's evil. so, i'm assuming that when you're in a space like this, you must... you must be in this space thinking, "i might not leave "here alive at all, cos everywhere i look, "there are many different ways i could die"? yes. down this corridor is a door of no return. through it, slaves were forced onto ships ready for transportation. it's almost as if... if suffering here wasn't bad enough, once you leave past that door, you'rejust going to suffer some more. so you're going to end up at a plantation, and your suffering doesn't end here. did the slaves know that? i don't think they knew. i don't. when i've learned about slavery

in the past, it felt distant. it sort of felt like, "this is something that "happened to people that looked like me, but not necessarily "people who were just like me." if i was born in that time, i easily could have been in that situation, and that's something that... i don't even know how a human goes through that and survives. it's thought that over three million africans were purchased and transported across the atlantic on british ships, with those on board facing a life of working without pay in inhumane conditions. 0ttobah, like many of those transported by the british, was sent to work on a caribbean sugar plantation. but unlike most, his story has a positive ending. 0ttobah was purchased by a merchant who took him to britain, where he learned to read and write and was eventually freed. 0ttobah was able to record his story in writing, and it went on to help convince

the british people of the evils of the slave trade. by 1807, britain — a country which had been one of the world's largest slaving nations — became one of the first to outlaw the trading of enslaved people, meaning people could no longer be forcibly transported from africa. so, i know there'll be some people who think that because britain was leading in the abolition movement, that that clears them of everything. and it's like, "you know what? "yeah, they did terrible things, but they did "help to free the slaves." you can think like that... ..but i don't always think rights clear your wrongs. sometimes the wrongs that you do are so wrong that your rights... ..theyjust don't cut it. i now know that the trade in human beings was key

to britain's arrival on these shores, but i want to know what kept britain here once slavery had been abolished and why they ended up expanding their power. so i'm heading north, following the path the british took to kumasi. it's ghana's second largest city and is home to the people of the asante tribe. first stop, i'm going to a farm on the outskirts which grows cocoa, used to produce chocolate. i'm meeting historian 0sei bonsu to tell me what they were up to. here, we have the cocoa bean... yeah. ..in the pod. and i guess the most important question is, can i try some of that? you can. it feels very, like, gooey. he laughs yeah, suck on it. hmm! it tastes quite sweet! laughing: yes. so, we know when the british

stopped trading in slaves, they didn't just leave ghana. in fact, their growth in ghana continued, and they moved to different regions. why was that the case? so when slavery had ended, they had to move to other areas where they could make money. such as cocoa, i believe? yeah. cocoa... yeah. ..kola nuts, gold. they also traded in coffee. why did the british find so much value in products like this? they were selling overseas. it was giving the british government a lot of money, so they institutionalised the cocoa farming. so, the british saw things like cocoa beans, they decided, "wait, we can make quite a bit of money "off of farming these beans. "let's make the production even bigger and even faster "so we can make more money." is that essentially what happened? yes. maximise profit. expansion north led to violent clashes with the ruling asante people. britain wanted control in the region, to be able to make money through the likes of cocoa and gold.

but britain tried to justify their violence by claiming that they wanted to stop the asante, who were believed to be keeping slaves and carrying out religious killing known as human sacrifice. just outside kumasi, at a workshop he helped set up weaving african fabrics called kente, 0sei bonsu wants to show me just how far britain went to protect its interests here. so what exactly did the british do to the people of the asante community? they engaged them in a number of wars. any time they defeated the asantes, they took more of their lands and added it to theirs. the british did not stop there. they moved into the capital and then burnt down the capital. british soldiers burnt kumasi to the ground and sent brutal statements of power to the asante people. 0sei bonsu has a document that he wants to share with me. it is important to note... yeah. ..that the british used local

people to fight the asante. britain ordered that the fante people from the south of the country had to support the british in their wars. as many as 20,000 men were forced to help. so, reading this, "every able—bodied man not already engaged "in the service of this country is immediately "to present himself for that service." and then it goes on to say that every able—bodied man refusing to do it without a proper excuse is to be arrested and made to work without pay. does that suggest that, at this point in history, my family would have been used to help fight against...? yes, that is true. wow! i am somebody who, i've always said, "i'm proud to be british. "i'm british through and through." but at the same time, i'm very much so ghanaian, and i'm very much so fante. and knowing that the british went through any means that they could to manipulate the fante people and other ghanaian communities, and inflict such harsh punishment, that's not easy

news to hear at all. to think, what, you would do all of that just for money? and you would do all of that to become this great empire that we've learned so much about? for the asante, the hurt of what happened still lives on — in part because british soldiers looted precious items, many of them made of gold, like these still on display in kumasi — and took them to britain, where they remain today. to find out more, i'm heading into the city to meet one of the leaders of the asante community, chief agyemang—bonsu. but before i can chat to the chief, tradition calls for me to dance for him. drum music dance over, and it

looks like he's happy. so i know byjust looking at appearance alone that gold is very important to not only the ghanaian culture, but specifically the asante culture. butjust how important is gold to you guys? gold is very important, because it's a sign for us not only of wealth, but also of authority. during this journey, i've learned that there was a point in history where the british actually looted from this culture and took it to the uk. how do the current asante community feel towards the british and all the things that they've still got in the uk? that actually had... ..a devastating blow to our kingdom, because, for us, it's not just an artefact. it is the soul of the kingdom. and to have taken those items from us, robbed us of those important historical relics — i mean, we would have loved

to have had them here. for the current and the future generation, we want to have them back. so far, i've heard some pretty difficult things about britain's history in ghana, but i want to look at another side to the legacy of the empire. and i'm off to church. christianity is the largest religion in ghana and was introduced by the british. for loads of ghanaians, like those here in church today, that's something to be thankful for. singing i know that other ghanaians also think positively about some of the things britain created here — things such as building schools, advances in medicine and the creation of roads, railways and ports.

in 1957 became one of the first african countries to achieve independence from the british empire, a fact i know guidelines are fiercely proud of. for me it is difficult to look beyond britain was make exploitation of ghana for people and profit. britain and ghana will always be connected by a shared history. because of that, millions of people here see britain positively, and view it as a home away from home. like my family did when they moved to britain all those years ago. in order to know who you are, you've got to know where you come from. yeah, i might not be entirely proud of the history that underpins both sides of me. but it's made me who i am. and it's made my life

what it is today. so maybe, just maybe, i am de—graft because of the empire. hello, it's looking likely the uk will see its highest temperature on record at the start of next week. it's more likely than not that somewhere, we'll see a0 degrees celsius for the first time in the uk. that's why the met office has a red extreme heat warning in force on monday and tuesday. widespread impacts and disruption. do take a look at these warnings and what it means for you, and prepare for what's coming at the start of next week. this is the area covered by the red extreme heat warning on monday and tuesday, a large part of england. notjust a london thing — manchester, leeds in that as well with exceptionally

high temperatures. all of england, wales and into southern scotland sunday to tuesday covered by a met office amber extreme heat warnings. widespread impacts in these areas as well. we've seen record temperatures in spain and portugal, this excessive heat lifting north through france and into the uk as the weekend goes on. a natural weather pattern to get the heat from the south into the uk over summer, unnatural to see such high temperatures. the reason — climate change. now is the time to bring as much cool air into the house as possible with some temperatures in single figures as saturday begins. a good time to open the windows, if it is safe to do so. there'll be a bit of rain early on with a stiff breeze in northern scotland. that will move north across the northern isles. elsewhere, a lot of sunshine to begin with, though for northern ireland and scotland, cloud will increase more widely during the day as especially the afternoon goes on will start to introduce some patchy outbreaks of rain. for much of england and wales, it'll be a sunny day, though cloud increasing also in northern england going into the evening. it will be warmer.

temperatures for england and wales low to mid 20s. midlands, centraland south—eastern parts of england, we're looking at highs of around 26—29 degrees celsius. now, overnight and into sunday, we'll take some outbreaks of rain through parts of scotland, northern ireland and into northern england as well. clear spells to the south of that. it will be a touch warmer as sunday begins. and then early on sunday, on the damp side early northern ireland, northern england. that rain clears. scotland still seeing some rain in the far north whereas elsewhere, by the afternoon, there'll be a lot of sunshine around and it's hotter at this stage. very warm across scotland, northern ireland, but hot england and wales, more places getting above 30 degrees celsius and, of course, the heat surging even more into monday. a very warm, perhaps record—breakingly warm, night on monday night. heat again on tuesday before, thankfully, it turns cooler from midweek.

hello and welcome to bbc news. president biden has told the de facto ruler of saudi arabia, mohammed bin salman, that he holds him personally responsible for the murder of the journalist jamal khashoggi. his comments came during a visit tojeddah — the latest stop on his tour of the region. the american leader fist—bumped with mohammed bin salman ahead of the talks. it comes years after he promised to make saudi arabia a pariah over the murder in the saudi consulate in istanbul. at a news conference injeddah, the president told reporters he made it very clear how he felt about the killing.