By many measures, 2024 has been a terrible year—too many fires, floods, storms and wars. And Trump—the antithesis of what many of us believe to be the right choice or the right way forward, actually won again.
Also in November of this year, a momentous event we cannot ignore occurred across the ocean. In the West African country of Ghana, 524 more African Americans, Jamaicans, and other members of what is currently called the African Diaspora, took the formal step of becoming Ghanaian citizens, with rights to own property, vote, accept employment, start businesses, etc. In effect, they became dual citizens—retaining the legal status they already had, and accepting African citizenship as a member of Ghana’s West African population.
This is real Pan Africanism—an opportunity to be welcomed back into a society of millions of folk who look just like you. Of course, it is an opportunity with a few drawbacks—a new language to learn as quickly as possible, new transportation issues, new education adventures and new urban-rural problems. And, there have already been land disputes and local complaints of favoritism harming indigenous land rights in coastal Ghana. But here was a grand opportunity to expand the panorama of being Black in the world. Here was a great opportunity to broaden the quilt at a time African Americans and other African people need a broader palette to work from. And Ghana is one of the two African countries that welcomed and still use Marcus Garvey’s Red-Black-Green collaboration in their national flags. The other is Libya.
This swearing-in of over five hundred new Ghanaian citizens adds to the over 300 that had already taken that oath of new citizenship a few years earlier. Ghana now exists as the African country that has accepted back the largest number of Africans from the diaspora as full citizens. Sierra Leone and Liberia have also done so, but Ghana has accepted the largest groups.
The story of how well African Americans and other members of the diaspora settle into, and help African countries thrive and grow even more than they already are, is a future story in the making. If nothing else, the new citizenships offer African Americans a broadened opportunity to make a real difference in the world, rather than simply be confined to the choices offered by a country like the U.S., which can’t seem to make up its mind whether to love us or reject us, in spite of the long-term gifts we bring and have brought to the table.
We say congratulations to Ghana, and its outgoing president, Nana Akufo-Addo, for the opportunity to bring “home” skills, sagacity, resources and educational attainment to help build the Africa of the future. African Americans accept this opportunity and intend to help expand it if possible.
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.
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