Ludacris and Samuel L. Jackson obtained Gabonese citizenship after tracing their heritage to the Gabonese Republic – a country on the west coast of Central Africa. This forms part of the new inclinations of African-Americans toward Motherland. Some are relocating back home to their ancestral lands, others visit and plans to retire to Africa in future.
Ghana should be applauded for fuelling further fire to return home when she initiated the “Year of Return” to commemorate 400 years that the first Africans were taken in chains to Jamestown, Virginia, in America.
Last year, Ghana gave 126 people of African descent citizenship with majority of them being Americans.
The testimonies of these returnees are inspiring and informative – some are surprised to see black people like them in top government positions, as this is scarce in the nations they have been taken to as slaves many years ago.
The warmth of the people and respect they shower on them also melt their hearts – respect is also becoming a taboo in a place like the U.S.
According to nypost.com report: Monique John, a returnee to Monrovia, Liberia said: “It was very rundown looking. But my feeling as I was walking along the city’s main streets was a sense of excitement . . . it felt almost like an out-of-body experience to finally be in Africa.”
Jerome Thompson, a native of Maryland in the United States, retired to Ghana 11 years ago. He was in Ghana on a tour in 2000. “I fell in love with Ghana and its people. It was good seeing black people, my people, in charge of the country (Ghana).
He loves the oceans that he said made him fall asleep and appreciates the fact that such a proximity to the would have cost him a fortune in the U.S.
There are a few of them scattered all over the continent and there are those who came and went back because they could not cope with the hard life the continent offers.
Other than Ghana, many other countries have not explored the opportunities that underline the efforts to bring African-Americans back home, either to say or to invest.
