For african americans in ghana the grass isn t always greener

by J. Pharoah Doss, For New Pittsburgh Courier

When Ghana’s President Jerry Rawlings visited the United States in 1999, he offered citizenship to all Black Americans that wished to live in Ghana. 

Hundreds of Black Americans decided to relocate, and in 2001 the Wall Street Journal published an essay called: For African-Americans in Ghana, the grass isn’t always greener.

In Ghana, the essayist explained, Black Americans discovered malaria was rampant, electricity and water were often interrupted, and wages were meager by US standards. Black Americans also discovered they weren’t welcomed like Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings promised.

The Ghanaians called the Black Americans “obruni”, which means “white” or “foreigner” in the local language.

Black Americans that relocated to Ghana also wondered if they needed to start a civil rights movement to obtain equal and fair treatment. Ghana banned American residents from government jobs. Hospitals charged Americans higher fees. Americans could not vote in elections or participate in local politics.

In 2019, Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo, announced “The Year of Return” to celebrate the 400-year anniversary of when the first enslaved Africans arrived in North America. This was a call for all descendants from the African continent living abroad to return to Ghana and celebrate the “resilience of the African spirit”.

The next year, an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, was killed by a White police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which launched a world-wide protest against racial injustice and police brutality.

Ghana’s officials gave another invitation to Black Americans. This time, Ghana was promoted as a place of refuge.

By 2021, OMG Voice (social news for the Ghanaian Millennial) published a headline that said: Here’s why over 5,000 Black Americans have moved to Ghana since 2019. The consensus amongst this new group of Black Americans that relocated to Ghana was that the police killing of George Floyd proved that Black Americans were not safe in the United States.

DeNeen L. Brown recently published an essay in the Washington Post called: The case for leaving America to escape racism. Brown described when she was in Ghana and her driver was pulled over for making a U-turn.

“My stomach dropped. It was the middle of the night, and I was terrified. I watched as the driver got out of the car and walked toward the officer standing on the side of the road. The driver motioned to the officer and explained he was lost and apologized for making the U-turn. The officer listened. After a pause, the officer said, ‘I forgive you. Go about your way’.”

Based on this police encounter, Brown concluded, “I want this kind of freedom: to live in a country where traffic stops end peacefully. I want the ability to move amongst people who look like me … I know no place is perfect. But I want to live in a country where racism is not a constant threat. Which is why I have decided to eventually leave America.”

Once again, the grass isn’t greener in Ghana.

The year before the police killing of George Floyd, the academic journal The Conversation published a report about policing in Ghana.

The report stated that a police force is considered professional when there is a code of ethics that governs law enforcement, and there are credible structures of accountability that ensure integrity and quality of service.

These features are underdeveloped in Ghana.

The police have a reputation for intimidation, violence, and corruption. Police officers routinely treat citizens unfairly and brutalize citizens without provocation. The police officers are also trigger-happy.

In 2021, a Ghanaian security analyst reacted to the guilty verdict of the ex-police officer that murdered George Floyd. The security analyst said, “There is a need for Ghana to adopt a system that effectively handles and delivers justice to Ghanaians who become victims of police brutality.”

There are probably many good reasons to move to Ghana, but escaping America to no longer be in fear of the police isn’t one of them.

About Post Author

Tareian King is an intern with CFR's Africa Program and a student at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. She is also the founder of Nolafrique, an e-commerce platform that enables artisans in African villages to have global exposure and opportunities for scale up.

The year 2019 marked four hundred years since the first enslaved people from West Africa arrived in the United States. The president of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, declared the anniversary the Year of Return. It celebrated the resilience of African Americans and encouraged them to return to Africa, visit, apply for Ghanaian citizenship, and take advantage of investment opportunities. Festivities included naming and healing ceremonies, trips to heritage sites, musical performances, lectures, investment forums, and relocation conferences. According to the minister of tourism, the initiative generated $1.9 billion in tourism revenue. Although all members of the African diaspora—both recent immigrants and descendants of the transatlantic slave trade living predominantly in the Americas—were included, the primary focus was on African Americans.

The connection between African Americans and Ghana is not new. In 1957, Ghana became an inspiration for African Americans when it became the first sub-Saharan African country to win independence from a colonial power. Ghana’s independence also gave momentum to the Pan African movement, which, among other things, encourages solidarity among all African diaspora ethnic groups to obtain political and economic power. Martin Luther King traveled to Ghana to celebrate its defeat of colonization, and Malcolm X and Maya Angelou worked in Ghana during the presidency of Kwame Nkrumah. W.E.B. Dubois died in Ghana as a Ghanaian national and today, there is the W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Center for Pan-African Culture in Accra. Marcus Garvey, the famed Jamaican Pan-Africanist, advocated for the return of African Americans to Africa. He founded the Black Star Line to help blacks return to Africa, which is the origin of the black star on the Ghanaian flag and for name of the national football team.

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Ghana’s Year of Return initiative sought to not only carry on this relationship, but expand it. The initiative is a part of a larger strategy to make Ghana less reliant on aid by drawing on, among other things, business and investment from African American. The goal of President Akufo-Addo’s broader development agenda, called “Ghana Beyond Aid,” is to achieve self-reliant growth and to break out of the mindset of dependency. According to Akufo-Addo, Ghana does not need foreign aid; instead, it needs the African diaspora to return, build, and invest. The United Nations Sustainable Development Partnership (UNSDP) adopted his agenda as part of its plan for African development.

Ghana is well-positioned to become less reliant on aid. In 2017, Ghana received $1.25 billion in official development assistance (ODA). This was only 2.1 percent of Ghana’s GDP of $59 billion in 2017. (ODA is government aid that promotes and specifically targets the economic development and welfare of developing countries; it excludes military and anti-terrorism activities.)

Moreover, Ghana already attracts substantial investments from abroad. For example, the value of French foreign direct investments in Ghana in 2017 was $10.5 million for a total stock amounting to $1.7 billion, and China will have begun work on $2 billion worth of infrastructure construction in Ghana. But, African Americans will have programs specifically created for them. As part of “Ghana Beyond Aid,” the president announced the launch of "Beyond the Return: The Diaspora Dividend,” a multi-million dollar fund to attract investment from members of the African diaspora. It will consist of special diaspora investment programs, Sankofa Savings accounts, and diaspora housing schemes. The ministry of finance stated that the African diaspora will be able to invest in "tourism infrastructure, agriculture value addition, real estate, music, culture, and retirement homes.”

In Ghana, African Americans have no language barrier and the country has a transparent legal system and a business environment that makes it a secure and reliable destination for investors. Ghana is also the only country to provide people of African ancestry the legal right to stay in the country indefinitely through its Right to Abode law. During the Year of Return, Ghana waived a number of bureaucratic hurdles and granted one hundred African Americans citizenship based on their African ancestry alone.

At a memorial ceremony for George Floyd, Ghana’s minister of tourism, Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, told African Americans to “come home, build a life in Ghana.” Ghana’s courtship of African Americans has grown from one based mostly on solidarity in the face of black oppression to one also based on business and investment. Ghana hopes to attract investors with an interest in its development, while some African Americans can profit personally from the relationship. With available business opportunities, a welcoming environment, and an opportunity to leave behind racism and police brutality, some African Americans may accept Ghana’s invitation.

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