Opinion
Ghana: A place for African Americans, people of African descent to resettle
Beyond Laws
More needs to be done to make returning African brothers and sisters feel welcome back on the continent if Africa is to benefit from their return. Samuel Amankwah, the director of research at Ghana’s interior ministry, admits that the authorities need to engage more. “Those who left our shores are still our brothers and sisters,” he says. “Offering Africans in the diaspora a right to abode in Ghana is a way of engaging for our common interest.”
When the late televangelist Myles Munroe visited Ghana in 2012 and paid a courtesy call on President John Mahama, then a vice president, he encouraged people of African descent living in the diaspora to take advantage of Ghana’s Right of Abode law and reconnect with the African continent.
Mixed feelings
Despite some initial setbacks, people of African descent continue to migrate to the continent, though not in the expected droves. And like Florindo Johnson, who just retired from Delta Airlines this January, says: it is important to encourage more blacks to come. Having flown in and out of Ghana for nine years, Johnson, an Afro Caribbean who lived in Chicago, is retiring in Ghana to operate her 6 apartments in Prampram that she intends to rent out as holiday accommodations.
“I really want black people to come and see for themselves. It is disheartening that a lot of black people don’t want to come because of what they have seen in the media, yet white people come.”
Efam Dovi is a contributing blogger who writes for United Nations Africa Renewal Magazine. A version of this article was originally published in The Africa Report.
