Photos and Story
By Richard A. Moore
For some, just the thought of visiting the Motherland is wishful thinking, but 252 made the trek and on November 28, 2019, 126 from the Diaspora were granted Ghanaian citizenship out of the group.
The celebration was bittersweet but then on December 22, 2022 the remaining 126 were finally granted their citizenship and the big celebration took place as people showed up and
showed out dressed in beautiful Kente Cloth and other traditional fabrics.
Most of those granted citizenship came from the U.S. and now have dual citizenship in both the U.S. and Ghana, Africa; eligible for a passport from their new home, Ghana.
This celebration comes after 2019 when Ghana hosted a series of activities at home and abroad to encourage the descendants of those who were forcibly removed from the Motherland to return home.
That year, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo embarked on a five-nation tour of the Caribbean to promote the citizenship initiative. The year 2019 was not the 1st time Diasporas were granted citizenship.
In December of 2016, President John Mahama “restored” citizenship for 34 Diasporan Africans.
Following the ceremony, Vanessa Mixson from Milwaukee, WI who arrived in her 20s said, “It’s strange because I don’t feel the instant joy or build up towards it like I think everybody else did. Leading up to it in 2019, I was excited but when it didn’t happen for me in 2019 because the date kept changing and I was out of town during the ceremony I kind of lost that excitement. They even called my name in 2019, but I was not there to receive my citizenship.”
This time around Mixson says it was just business. She said she has felt like a “Ghanaian for more than 20 years”, as the locals who ask how long she’s been here and when she tells them, they say, “oh, you are Ghanaian.”
Steve Cokely II from Chicago, IL is the founder of Ghana’s first Black Think Tank said the realization has not hit him yet.
“I have been wanting this for so long now it’s here and I don’t really know what I feel,” he said. “ I know I’m glad to have this (citizenship) and I can move more freely now.
Many Pan Africanists might recognize his name as he is the son of the well-respected late political researcher and community activist Steve Cokely; who was a popular favorite on Dallas, TX-based radio station KKDA-AM with Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price.
Actress and fitness expert A.J Johnson, best known for playing Tyrese’s mother in the movie, Baby Boy, and also the good friend of Tisha Campbell’s character in House Party, was among those receiving dual citizenship.
Native New Yorker Rabbi Kohainh has lived in Ghana since 1994 and had quite a bit of insight on the process.
He said, “In 1992 we thought we would be considered for citizenship post haste, but when we looked for it to happen in 1994 it was not to be. The constitution did not allow it. In 1998 it was allowed for some repatriations but that law two did not really the African American cause.
The Year of the Return provided African Americans of the Diaspora a bit of leverage because of the huge amount of money that was spent here. The boost to the Ghanaian economy was huge.
“The initial group of 252 was somehow cut in half and no one has ever been provided any good reason why,” he continued, adding that he is elated that finally the rest of the list is complete but he wasn’t pleased that it took three years. “Since then, more of us have arrived at the invitation of the Ghana government and no new list has been entertained. But there is new legislation pending in Parliament called the Homeland Return Act. It is meant to benefit those who can prove their lineage to the Motherland and want to return.”
The Rabbi said he believes, “the process should begin upon arrival as many have chosen to give up our comfortable lives in America and other nations to come here. We should not be delayed with complicated laws and requirements for being here for years before this can happen.”
To put this in perspective, he said there are facts about Ghana that might provide understanding as to why Africans in the diaspora feel it is their birthright to return home without all of the complications and fees that are currently being assessed on them as they return to Ghana more-so than other places.
Ghana is home of more that 75% of the slave dungeons built on the west coast of Africa. In 2019 President Akufo-Addo said, ‘We had a responsibility to extend the hand of welcome, back home to Africans in the Diaspora.’
During that ceremony Rabbi Kohain, who spoke on behalf of that group, said what can still be said for this and every group given citizenship, “the most valuable possession that was taken away from us was our identity and out connection; it was like severing the umbilical cord…. But tonight, our identity, the dignity, the pride that has been absent is restored here.”
Richard A. Moore hails from New Jersey where he graduated from Clifford J. Scott High School and then received a Bachelor’s Degree from Florida A&M University. He moved to Ghana in 2021 and established a non profit that supports underserved youth in Africa and the United States.
