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General News    H2'ed 4/26/18

Ghana's Right to Return Law for the Descendants of African Slaves


Justin Samuels
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A number of nations offer right of returns for those persecuted due to historical injustice. Israel offers a right of return for Jewish people. Germany offers a right of return for those descended from Jews expelled or who fled the horrors of the Holocaust. Spain and Portugal offer citizenship to those whose ancestors were expelled from the Iberian peninsula due to the 1492 and 1497 expulsions and the Spanish Inquisition. Ghana is the first African nation to offer a right to return for those impacted by African slavery.

The importance of this cannot be underestimated. Ghana was one of the main ports from which African slaves were picked up and shipped out to the Americas. For the government in Ghana to not only acknowledge this but to attempt to rectify the horrible history that took place is a major step. Clearly people of African descent did not willing immigrate to the Americas, and for those that wish to return to Africa Ghana is a stable country in West Africa that speaks English. Ghana is the world's fastest growing economy according to the IMF and the World Bank.

Ghana has historically attracted a number of African American and Anglo Caribbean tourists. Those who stay long term under Ghana's right to return law are free to apply for dual citizenship if they have made substantial contribution to the economy or society of Ghana. The right to return is mutually beneficial for those in the African diaspora and for Ghana itself. African Americans who have made the move said they did so because they wanted to live in a place where they felt like they fitted in. Or that they felt like coming up. Or that it was important for them to have options as to where they wanted to live. The US media brainwashed African Americans into thinking that either we live in the inner city or we have to live in the South. It's nice to see African Americans taking matters into their own hands and deciding where they want to live, and on their terms. Hopefully more nations in Africa will offer right of returns for the African diaspora.


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Screenwriter. Historian. BA in History and certificate in Latin American studies from Cornell University. MA in English Education from Columbia University. Very interested in public policy.

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