Demonstrations around the world in response to the police killing of George Floyd have sparked calls for change and the West African nation of Ghana has been no exception.
At a memorial and wreath laying ceremony in Accra, Ghana’s capital city last month dedicated to Floyd, tourism minister Barbara Oteng-Gyasi reportedly encouraged Black Americans and others throughout the diaspora to visit or even repatriate to the home continent of their ancestors.
In 2019, Ghana’s tourism ministry completed a two-year campaign to encourage tourism by African Americans in what it billed as its “Year of Return.”
Even before the wreath ceremony, Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo blasted police violence against Blacks, saying in a statement: “We stand with our kith and kin in America in these difficult and trying times, and we hope that the unfortunate, tragic death of George Floyd will inspire a lasting change in how America confronts head on the problems of hate and racism.”
In November, Addo hosted a ceremony in which about 100 African Americans and Black West Indians who had been living in Ghana became citizens of the country: A law passed by Ghanian parliament in 2001, called Right of Abode, allowed anyone of African ancestry living in the diaspora to repatriate and stay indefinitely, according to its Ministry of the Interior.