VisionAfricaMedia

Increasing numbers of African-Americans and others of African lineage from around the globe have embraced the notion that repatriating to Africa is a far better option than to continue to live in countries in North America, the Caribbean and Europe where they are made to feel like second class citizens, may be subjected to acts of brutality perpetrated by police and law enforcement authorities or just get killed for any action deemed by the police as warranting a show of deadly force.

For many African-Americans, repatriating to Africa provides the opportunity to make a bold statement.  Deciding to repatriate to Africa is essentially proclaiming to the world that they have taken the final and ultimate step of redemption, by returning to the land of their ancestors. Unlike Africans who immigrate to the US and Europe and elsewhere, returning to Africa by African-Americans and others of African lineage from around the globe is not just a change of environment to explore the potential of setting up a business or pursuing a career option. They make the move with the feeling that they have gone ‘home’ to countries in Africa where they plan to live for the rest of their lives. They have, for all intents and purposes, relinquished the citizenships of the countries in which they were born and expect to be made citizens of the African countries in which they settle.

It is a unique homecoming for them, and indeed an act of immense spiritual and cultural significance. Those who have repatriated or are planning to do so know they are re-connecting with the continent and people from which they were “stolen” according to Empress Rah, formerly of New York, now based in Johannesburg. She repatriated to Africa, several years ago, and briefly lived in Ghana.

One would assume that African-Americans and others of African lineage from elsewhere around the globe repatriating to Africa would be warmly and spontaneously embraced and made to feel welcome by the African people and governments. They certaainly deserve to be received, welcomed, and celebrated for making the decision to repatriate to Africa. Again, they leave behind family, friends and all the conveniences of the advanced lifestyles in the countries in which they were born and bred

I had no reason to believe otherwise. As far as I know and from my own personal experiences, African-Americans who return to African countries, for whatever reason, are shown genuine love, appreciation and respect by the African people and  governments.

Not quite, said a colleague recently when we discussed the subject of the emergence of a number of organizations on FACEBOOK and other social media purporting to help people prepare to repatriate to Africa. He is also a New York state resident who has made up his mind to repatriate to an African country. He has made substantial progress with his plans to repatriate to Africa. According to him, African governments make it difficult, if not impossible for African-Americans and others of African lineage to repatriate to African countries. He said they have policies that essentially hinder and even disqualify them from becoming citizens of African countries.

I hesitated to believe what he said. It ran counter to everything I know, have seen and personally experienced about African-Americans and others of African lineage being received by Africans. I told him that the people of Ghana are celebrated around the world for their hospitality towards foreigners and are known to go out of their way to make foreigners feel welcome, especially African-Americans.

I cited my own first hand experience In the late sixties, I shared an apartment in Accra, the capital of Ghana, with a number of African-Americans who came to study or just visit. He countered that may be the case at the level of individuals interacting with each other. As far as he knew, Government policies as they currently exist, make it impossible for African-Americans and others of African lineage to become citizens in most African countries. To provide me with further evidence, he called an African-American woman who has already repatriated to Africa in Johannesburg, put us all on speaker phone and asked the question; are African-Americans allowed to become citizens in African countries? Her response was an emphatic no. She elaborated, providing more details, about her own experiences and those of other colleagues who had ran into problems trying to become citizens in African countries..

I am still incredulous, finding it hard to believe that such policies exist in African countries. I am sure the Ghana government has adopted a different approach that encourages and makes it easy for African-Americans to repatriate to the country. It makes no sense for African-Americans, and others of African lineage to be denied the privilege of becoming citizens of African countries, especially if Europeans seem to encounter no obstacles when they decide to settle in Africa.

African-Americans have every reason to feel frustrated, angry and even remorseful, if it is indeed true that government policies in African countries make it difficult for them to return to Africa. However, in the absence of any information to the contrary from African governments, we have no choice but believe that current government policies tend to make them feel unwanted and not welcome.