An excerpt from The Grio -
‘Come home,’ Ghana told the African diaspora. Now some Black Americans take its citizenship
Americans face few obstacles to living in Ghana, with most people paying an annual residency fee.
By The Associated Press
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| Keachia Bowers, second from right, her husband Damon Smith, right, and their children play cards in the living room of their home in Accra, Ghana, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. Their family relocated to Ghana from Florida and have obtained Ghanaian citizenship. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu) |
ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — Flipping through a family album, Keachia Bowers paused on a photo of her as a baby on her father’s lap as he held the 1978 album “Africa Stand Alone” by the Jamaican reggae band Culture.
“When I was 10 years old, I was supposed to come to Ghana with him,” she said. A day earlier, she had marked 10 years since her father’s death. Though he was a Pan-Africanist who dreamed of visiting Ghana, he never made it here.
Bowers and her husband, Damon Smith, however, are among the 524 diaspora members, mostly Black Americans, who were granted Ghanaian citizenship in a ceremony in November.
Bowers and Smith moved to Ghana from Florida in 2023 after visiting the region several times between them since the ’90s. They now run a tour business that caters to Black people who want to visit Ghana or elsewhere in West Africa, or like them have come to consider a permanent move.
The November group was the largest one granted citizenship since Ghana launched the “Year of the Return” program, aimed at attracting the Black diaspora, in 2019. It marked 400 years since the first African slaves arrived in Virginia in 1619.
Ghana’s Tourism Authority and the Office of Diaspora Affairs have extended the program into “Beyond the Return,” which fosters the relationship with diasporans. Hundreds have been granted citizenship, including people from Canada, the U.K. and Jamaica.
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