Ghana in Focus Special: The Year of Return and the Surge of African Diaspora Relocating to Ghana

The episode uncovers various layers of motivations and impacts exploring why thousands of Africans are finding a new home in Ghana. The Year of Return, a landmark event inviting diasporans to reconnect with their ancestral roots, attracted 1.9 million visitors and has sparked a continuing trend of relocation. An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Africans have made Ghana their home over the past five years.

One of the most compelling reasons behind this migration is the search for a more relaxed and safer lifestyle. Unlike the fast-paced, often racially charged environments of Western societies, Ghana offers a sense of peace and security. Many diasporans find solace in escaping the daily grind of Western life, characterized by a monotonous cycle of work and limited opportunities for advancement. The episode highlights the stark contrast between Ghanaians seeking opportunities abroad and diasporans seeking refuge in Ghana. The desire for a life free from racial judgment is a significant factor driving this shift.

We explore the deep emotional and spiritual fulfillment that comes with returning to one's ancestral homeland. For many African-Americans, particularly those conscious of their history, relocating to Ghana is more than just a move; it's a spiritual journey. The Year of Return initiative was not just about tourism but also about healing and reconnecting with one's roots. The emotional and spiritual significance of returning to the land of their ancestors cannot be overstated. It represents a full circle, a completion of a journey that their ancestors were forced to make in chains.

The episode also touches on the mutual benefits of this trend. The expertise and investments brought by the diasporans contribute significantly to Ghana's growth. Many returnees have set up businesses, creating employment opportunities for local Ghanaians. This influx of skilled professionals and entrepreneurs has a positive impact on the economy. The transfer of knowledge and skills is invaluable, bridging the gap between those born in Ghana and those returning from the diaspora.

Another significant aspect discussed is the mental health benefits of relocating to Ghana. The episode sheds light on how the slower pace of life in Ghana positively impacts mental well-being. The constant pressure to meet targets and the toxic work environments in the West take a toll on mental health. 

The importance of mental health cannot be overstated, and for many diasporans, Ghana provides a sanctuary where they can thrive.

Chapters

• 0:04 Africans Returning to Ghana
• 16:53 African Diaspora Returning to Ghana

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to this week's edition of Ghana in Focus. Myself Kwame, ghanaian broadcaster, writer, journalist, podcaster and entrepreneur, and in this week's edition of Ghana in Focus, why Diasporans are coming to Ghana. Alright, so that's the topic for this week's Ghana In Focus why Dasborans, or why some main Dasborans are coming to Ghana. So before we start the show, if you like what you hear, please share to your friends, family, social media networks. You can subscribe to Ghana Africa In Focus podcast on YouTube. 're going to get 200 subscribers by the end of the year, so please subscribe to Ghana African focused on YouTube and hit the notification bell, meaning that YouTube will inform you every time I upload a new podcast again. We're also on Spotify and you can get the Ghana African Focus on Spotify. Just look out for Spotify Podcasts and click Ghana African Focus and click on follow, meaning that every time I upload a new podcast, spotify again will notify you. So so far, we've got 500 subscribers on Spotify, which is great, and we want to get 800 by the end of the year. So please tell your friends and subscribe to Ghana Advocating Focus podcast on Spotify. All right, so, again, if I had to donate to a show, you know you can donate as little as three dollars a month. That will help us with our costs and also help us continue to bring out great content coming out of Ghana and Africa as well. All right, so let's get into the podcast why many diasporans are coming to Ghana. And so, in the aftermath of the year of return in 2019, where the government of Ghana had an initiative to reacquaint themselves with diaspora by inviting them to Ghana and by seeing Ghana as a place to do business, a place to invest, a place to settle and a place to call home business, a place to invest, a place to settle and a place to call home. And so this was the year of return initiative that was started by community organisations, that was brought into by the government of Ghana and that became a great success in 2019, because about 1.9 million Africans from the diaspora visited Ghana in that year, looking at the business opportunities you know, looking about the tourism in Ghana, looking at Ghana being an investment destination and Ghana being somewhere they could settle. So, you know, the right of return and subsequent beyond return has created so much interest from the diaspora that today, you know, five years on from 2019, there are about between 20 estimates between 20 and about 30,000 Africans from the diaspora have moved to Ghana in that five year period, and so we want to analyse some of the reasons why Africans from the diaspora are moving back to Ghana and are seeing Ghana as a place they can call home. But before I get into that deeply, it's quite ironic because I made a podcast last year why Ghanians are leaving Ghana, you know. So there's a lot of Ghanians who have left Ghana over the last four to five years wanting to seek greener pastures abroad. You know, and it's quite funny that many Africans are coming back to Ghana to live and settle. But you've got, on the other hand, many Ghanaians, you know, leaving Ghana and trying to make it in the West. So what is it that the diaspora can see, that the Ghanaians on the ground can't see? That the Ghanaian on the Grand Connacht Sea, which is A making Ghanaians born in Ghana leave Ghana to go and get a new life abroad, and also why many diasporans are coming back. So that's a quite strange anomaly. But you know, there are many reasons why Africans from the diaspora, particularly the US, north America and Europe, are coming to Ghana. So I'll give you about half a dozen of them as from what I think are some of the key reasons why, you know, a lot of Africans from the diaspora, particularly from the West, are seeing or moving to Ghana and seeing Ghana as a place that they can call home. Now one of these is peace of mind. Now you know that would sound strange to many Ghanaians born in Ghana, but there is a lot of peace of mind being in Ghana and that you don't get in the West. So in the West there's this rat race that is in Europe and America particularly, and you are living in a society where the rat race basically is that you wake up in the morning, you go to work, you come back late at night, you have something to eat, watch a bit of TV, go to bed, wake up again, go to work. So it's like that same tremor of like working, working, working, and many people do that for the best part of 25, 30 years and then retire, you know, with their pension and what have you. But many or some Africans from the diaspora you know they don't want their life just to be that rat race. Ie go to work, wake up, go to work, come back home, sleep, wake up, go to work, come back home. That kind of tremble. A lot of Africans in the diaspora, particularly in Europe and America, are sick and tired of that rat race Again also, particularly in Europe and America, are sick and tired of that rat race Again. Also, living in a society where you are not judged, you know, by the colour of your skin, yeah, and actually wanting your own space and environment, you know, is a big issue, is a big plus for you know, a lot of Africans, the diaspora, particularly African-Americans. So that peace of mind that you can't get in America or Canada or UK or France is why many Africans from the diaspora are coming back to Ghana Again, you know. You know, you know this issue whereby, you know, particularly in America, african Americans, some of them, don't feel safe in America. You know, because we all know what's happened with George Floyd, trayvon Brown sorry, trayvon Martin, michael Brown, ahmad Dobri, you, you know Breonna Taylor, sandra Blanche, all these African-Americans killed by the police just because they had darker skin. Yeah, and this is what the peace of mind I'm talking about, that you know African-Americans particularly are escaping from, because in Ghana you don't get that. You know issue with the police. They understand that, yes, you know, a policeman in Ghana may kill me. No, that doesn't happen in Ghana, whereby if a policeman stops you, you know, unlike America, there could be the possibility of you using your life In Ghana. That doesn't happen and so many Africans from that sport, particularly African-Americans, view Ghana as somewhere that they can have peace of mind, not being part of that race, not being judged by the colour of their skin and also living in an environment where they feel safe and secure and not having to look over their back, particularly when they see a policeman. So you know, the peace of mind aspect is a very, very, very big thing as to why a lot of Africans from Jasper have come to Ghana. And that also ties into mental health, because if you're mental health, it's something because mentored up is a big illness. People, people jerk with mentored illness. Mentored illness is a very, very big, big issue, particularly in the West. And so if you are in the West and because of this pressure, you know to meet, you know KPIs, and you know to meet KPIs and all these targets, like your workplace and the pressure of life daily. You know to pay your rent, to pay your mortgage, you know to pay your children's, you know school attire, those kind of things. You know school meals, you know, and in America obviously they pay school fees as well, unlike in Britain where there's no school fees unless the child goes to private school. You know all these things and plus also the toxic environment that is in Britain and America especially, can play the mental and this is why, again, a lot of Africans from diaspora are leaving the West because it's having an effect of their mental. But when it comes to Ghana, ghana is not as fast paced as the West, and that does not, and it's a kind of more peaceful environment and it's a slower pace of life than in UK or US. You know that helps with having, you know, a fine tuning your mental, that you are not, you know, putting at stake or at risk your mental. So you know, having that peace of mind is a massive factor as to why, you know, so many Africans from diaspora are wanting to come to Ghana, not just Ghana but other African countries to come and live and settle All right. So another reason why a lot of Africans are leaving the West and coming to Ghana is racism. Racism, particularly in America, is a massive, massive negative for a lot of African Americans. You know, because you know many Africans born and bred in Africa right, have not suffered racism, don't know what racism is and have not had to live with racism for a lot of their lives. So, our sisters and brothers in the West, racism is a lot of their lives. So, our sisters and brothers in the West, racism is a daily matter, from not being valued at work to being harassed by your neighbour, to having your children being harassed in school, being stopped and searched by the police in the UK, us and in the US, if not careful, being killed by the police. You know people looking down upon you because of the colour of your skin, not getting that permission because of the colour of your skin, being undervalued at work because of the colour of your skin. You know racism is a massive, massive cool factor as to why many Africans from the diaspora want to leave the diaspora. You know want to leave the diaspora or leave the West or other and come to places like Ghana and live and settle, because you know living in a racist society, you know, is not for everybody. Some people have got thick skin and may take it, but a lot of people haven't got thick skin and actually they, you know they allowed racism to get to them and this is why I talked about men 12 previously, because racism can affect your men 12. And so, you know, not living in a society where you are judged by the colour of your skin, where you are looked down by the colour of your skin, is a massive, massive pull factor, and this is explains why, in particular, you see a lot of African Americans leaving America and coming to Ghana because of this racism, or what I would call anti-black racism, aphophobia, that is prevalent in places like UK, us, canada, germany, the Netherlands, australia, etc. And so racism, you know, or anti-black racism, afrophobia, which means failure of Africans, is a huge, huge factor as to why many Africans in the diaspora choose to come to an African country like Ghana to live and settle where they are not in a minority, they're in the majority and then they can see people that look like them in prominent positions, all right. So another reason why, you know, a lot of Africans are coming to Ghana is that, particularly African Americans, because a lot of African Americans we have to talk the truth a lot of African Americans are very entrepreneurial, they're very ambitious because of the society that is America, and so many Africans from that sport, particularly African Americans, come to Ghana because they see the opportunities that are in Ghana. So, unlike the Ghanaians who are born and bred in Ghana and not seeing what Ghana has to offer and thinking that they can make it in the West rather than Ghana, it is the opposite for our brothers and sisters who live in the West. So they see Ghana as somewhere that they can do business and somewhere that they can exploit the numerous opportunities that they are in Ghana. And whilst we're talking about opportunities, you know, coming back about September, october, I'll be doing a series, a three-part series, as there's some business opportunities that exist in Ghana that you can tap into. So that will be quite interesting that I'll bring you, between September and October, some of the business opportunities that exist in Ghana. That exist in Ghana. And so you know, many Africans and diaspora understand that there's a glass ceiling in the West. So, whether you're in Britain, america, canada, Germany, the Netherlands, belgium, spain, wherever right, there is a glass ceiling in the West. What I mean by that is that, as an African person, there's only so far you can go within a predominantly white or European society, yeah, and that your true potential will never be realised. So this, again, is what makes a lot of African people say you know what? I'm not going to stay in a place where I'm not valued. People say you know what? I'm not going to stay in a place where I'm not valued. I'm not going to stay in place whereby I'm, you know, I, you know I'm not going to get promotion, or I'm not going to stay in place whereby my work is not being valued by my, my boss or by my company. So, in that regard, I'm going to come to ghana, come to africa, use my skills, use, use my expertise, use my finance to you know, exploit the opportunities that I'm in countries like Ghana and, you know, help myself and also help my sisters and brothers in Ghana by giving them employment. And we see, you know, the many African Americans particularly, but also other Africans from the diaspora, who have come to Ghana and set up businesses like restaurants, like bars, like cafes, like tourist, tourist, tour companies, etc. That have also helped the economy of Ghana and also by employing local Ghanaians. So the numerous opportunities that are in Ghana is a big pull factor as to why many Africans in the diaspora are leaving the West and coming to Ghana to exploit the numerous business opportunities and investment opportunities that there are in Ghana. And this leads on to my next reason as to why many Africans and diaspora are coming to Ghana Again living their best life. You know because in the West, like I said, in the West you're undervalued and you're not really having a great life because all your life in the West is centered around work, work, work, work. Like I said, you get up, you go to work, you come back late at night, you know. Watch a bit of TV, have a bit of something to eat, then go back to bed again, wake up again, go to work, come back again. You know. Watch a bit of. You know Netflix, go to bed, wake up in the morning same. You know. Watch a bit of. You know Netflix, go to bed, wake up in the morning same thing, over and over and over again. And you're doing that the best part of 25 years. And so you know. You know in the West, despite what the West has to offer in terms of some of its advantages, you know many people in the diaspora think that they are not living their best lives. You know in the West. And so you know, given this and also given the numerous opportunities that there are in Ghana, and also given the fact that you know there's a different environment in Ghana. Many Africans from diaspora are leaving the west and coming to Ghana to literally live their best life. Ie, you know they're living in a place where they're the majority. They're living in a place where nobody looks down upon them because they're African. They're living in a place whereby the environment is more green. You know the environment is more serene. They're African. They live in a place whereby the environment is more green, the environment is more serene. They live in a place which is less toxic than in the West, which is very, very toxic, particularly in the workplace. So all these things add up as to why you can live your best life in Ghana, particularly if you've got a good business behind you and a good income coming in. You can definitely live your best life in Ghana, as compared to the West, whereby you are kind of restricted as to the cultivating that you can really live because of the colour of your skin. Now, the last reason why many Africans from the diaspora are attracted to someone like Ghana is a spiritual reason. And what do I mean by spiritual? So spiritual, you know particularly African-Americans. You know particularly African-Americans who are conscious and who have gone. You know who have had a bit of black history, you know, particularly those African Americans who are panchers and who have gone. You know who have had a bit of black history, you know, taught to them or ingrained in them. So they see, coming to Ghana, leaving the West, coming to somewhere like Ghana, on a spiritual journey, ie going back to a place their ancestors were forced to leave, to leave in chains, on a slave ship, and coming full circle by leaving the west, where the ancestors were forced to go to, and coming back to North Africa is a full circle. For many Africans in the Daspo, particularly African-Americans who you know, their ancestors were taken from Africa, places like Ghana, places like Nigeria, places like Togo, places like Ivory Coast today's Ivory Coast taken all the way from that territory to the so-called New World, you know, in the Americas and the Caribbean. And for some African-Americans it's a spiritual journey that they decide to leave America for some of the reasons I've just outlined, and they come back to Ghana at a spiritual journey, at the fulfillment of a spiritual journey, the journey that their ancestors could not make. They, as descendants of those ancestors, have made that that their ancestors could not make. They, as descendants of those ancestors have made that journey back to the motherland, back to mom Africa. And so you know many Africans, particularly African Americans, you know see, living in Ghana or resettling in Ghana, you know, and investing in Ghana as a spiritual journey, as a completion of a spiritual journey that was started by ancestors who were enslaved by the Europeans for more than 400 years, and coming back to Ghana, as you could say, a free person or an emancipated person, and completing that cycle or that circle, by coming back to their motherland and, uh, you know, living the best life and you know, exploiting opportunities that Ghana has to offer. And so this spiritual aspect of why many Africans from the diaspora, particularly African Americans, are coming to Ghana, coming to Africaor-Africa, is precisely that a spiritual journey that they have fulfilled their ancestors wishes in terms of, like, one day going back to Africa. You know, being a slave and being an enslaved African in the Americas and also the Caribbean. So this spiritual journey is a massive, massive pull as to why many africans, and that's particularly african-americans, are returning back to ghana, returning back to mother africa, as part of that spiritual fulfillment, spiritual journey. All right, so, um, so for me, these are some of the reasons why africans from daspora are coming back to Ghana, coming back to Africa, making a life for themselves. And a lot of Africans from diaspora who have come to Ghana are thriving and are living their best lives and are, you know, living in a less toxic environment and, in actual fact, you know, are more healthy than what they were, uh, in ghana sorry, what they were in the west, rather and having peace of mind and having that, you know, uh, mental health in order to actually, you know, navigate and live in ghana. And so ghana has benefited a lot from, uh, some of the expertise, some of the lot from some of the expertise, some of the finance and some of the opportunities that a lot of our sisters and brothers from the diaspora have tapped into. And, like I said, you know, there's a lot of Ghanaians on the ground, native Ghanaians born and bred, who have been employed by our sisters and brothers who have come back to Ghana from the diaspora. And this has actually helped also to, you know, bridge that cultural gap between Africans in the diaspora and Africans, you know, born and bred in Ghana. All right, so this has been Ghana In Focus, with myself, kwame. Hope you've enjoyed the show. Like I said again, please subscribe to Ghana Africa In Focus on YouTube. We want 200 subscribers, so please subscribe, if you haven't already, to Ghana Africa In Focus on YouTube. Again, we're on Spotify as well. We want to get 800 subscribers by the end of the year. Again, please look out for Ghana Africa in Focus on Spotify. Click on the follow button and you'll be notified every time I upload a new podcast. All right, so until next week's Ghana in Focus it's. Thank you very much for listening, and for myself, kwame and for all the crew here on Ghana in Focus. Thank you for listening and we'll see you in the next edition of Ghana In Focus.