Accra (AFP) – Tightly holding her citizenship certificate against her chest, Patrice Ann Robertson wiped away a tear; she’s now officially Ghanaian nearly a decade after she started living in the west African country. “This is home,” the now Ghanaian-American, who lives in Ghana’s southeastern Volta region, told AFP at a ceremony in the oceanside capital Accra. In nine years since she relocated to Ghana, she has only returned to her birthplace in the United States once.
Robertson was among 150 members of the African diaspora granted Ghanaian citizenship on Monday, the latest group in a growing initiative to reconnect descendants of Africans abroad with the continent of their ancestors. More than 1,000 Africans in the diaspora have obtained Ghanaian citizenship in recent years, many of them Black Americans drawn by a mix of historical, cultural, and personal motivations. For some, the ceremony at which they waved miniature Ghana flags in jubilation marked the culmination of years of identity search.
Nataki Kambon, who obtained Ghanaian citizenship in 2019 and attended Monday’s ceremony, said becoming a Ghanaian allowed her to reconnect with a part of her identity rooted in ancestry but long distant from her daily life. “I grew up in a household where we always knew we were African,” she said. “But there’s still a disconnect because of how Africa is portrayed in the United States.”
Ghana’s Vice President Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang and Interior Minister Muntaka Mubarak Mohammed attended the ceremony. The new citizens took an oath of allegiance before receiving their certificates. “Distance may separate our people, but it does not erase identity,” Opoku-Agyemang said. “Ghana continues to be a home for the global African family.”
Ghana has positioned itself as a gateway for diaspora return since launching the “Year of Return” initiative in 2019, which commemorated 400 years since enslaved Africans were first taken to North America. It encourages people of African descent to visit, invest, and reconnect with the continent. For many diaspora members, however, the journey towards citizenship is not only symbolic.
Robert and Serita Faison, a couple from the United States who visited Ghana a year earlier, said their decision to apply for citizenship came after falling in love with the country. “It feels like we’ve come full circle,” Robert Faison said. “We learned so much about the history here and how it connects to our ancestors. It just seemed right to come back.” While requiring a series of documentation and formal approvals, the process was not “seamless, but it was certainly doable,” he said.
Others said the emotional significance of the move outweighed any bureaucratic hurdles. Kevin Harris, who grew up in Washington, D.C., and decided to move to Ghana over safety and quality-of-life concerns in the United States, described the moment he became a Ghanaian citizen as “earth-shaking.” “I grew up going out to play outside. I see that here. I want my grandchildren to be able to go out in the neighborhood and play. I wanna be able to send my grandchildren to the store and not have to worry about their safety.” In America, “you always feel like you have to watch your children,” Harris said, holding his certificate and a miniature Ghana flag.
The Ghanaian government sees the diaspora not only as part of a historical family but also as a potential development partner. The interior minister said the event reflected growing international recognition of the injustices of the transatlantic slave trade and the need to rebuild connections. For Ghana, the diaspora also brings expertise, investment, and networks that can help shape the country’s future.
© 2024 AFP
