"Ashley Haruna never intended to stay in Ghana. But everything changed for the 28-year-old health coach when she stood facing a dark cell inside the stone walls of Cape Coast Castle. As the tour guide explained that many of the enslaved people who'd once been held there had ended up in Haiti, Haruna says she felt something. Having grown up in the United States to Haitian parents, she realised my ancestors could've passed through here."
"In the 1950s, Ghana's first prime minister and president, Kwame Nkrumah, championed the diaspora's return as part of his Pan-African dream and nation-building efforts. During the US civil rights movement, he invited Black American activists, including W E B Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and Julian Bond, to relocate to Ghana. In the 1960s, De Bois moved there, as did writer Maya Angelou."
"In 2019, the Year of Return, marking 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia, more than 200 people from the US and the Caribbean received Ghanaian citizenship. In 2024, as part of the government's Beyond the Return initiative the same programme that encouraged Haruna to move to Ghana 524 African diasporans were granted citizenship. But, as Haruna discovered, building a new life in Ghana comes with challenges."
Ashley Haruna, a 28-year-old health coach raised in the United States by Haitian parents, returned to Ghana after an emotional visit to Cape Coast Castle where she felt ancestral ties. Ghana's post-independence leaders, led by Kwame Nkrumah, promoted diaspora return and invited Black American activists during the civil rights era. The 2019 Year of Return encouraged diaspora relocation and more than 200 people obtained Ghanaian citizenship. The government's Beyond the Return initiative granted 524 African diasporans citizenship in 2024. Many returnees seek reconnection and belonging, yet newcomers encounter practical integration challenges while building new lives in Ghana.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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