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Ghana’s Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has offered a
practical solution to America’s disgruntled Black Lives Matter activists: come
home.
Tourism
Minister Barbara Oteng-Gyasi expressed concern about the cries of activists
from Black Lives Matter and Antifa who claim to feel unwelcome in the USA. Oteng-Gyasi implored, We continue to open our arms and invite all our brothers
and sisters home. Ghana is your home. Africa is your home. We have our arms
wide open ready to welcome you home. Please take advantage, come home build a
life in Ghana, you do not have to stay where you are not wanted forever, you
have a choice and Africa is waiting for you.
Black Lives Matter leaders have
collected tens
of millions of dollars in the last month and are yet to comment whether they intend to spend it
by leaving the country they hold in so much contempt and accepting Africa’s warm
embrace. The prospect may have real
promise with some Twitter users boasting of Ghana’s progressive nature.
At a
June 5th service of remembrance for George Floyd, whose death at the hands of Minneapolis
police sparked international rioting and civil unrest, the Tourism Minster sympathized
with the outraged mob in the United States telling the crowd:
“Racism
in America continues to be a deadly pandemic, for which for more than 400 years
now, our brothers and sisters in the United States of America have yearned for
a cure
We gather in solidarity with brothers and sisters to change the status
quo. Racism must end. We pray and hope that George Floyds death will not be in
vain but will bring an end to prejudice and racial discrimination across the
world.
400
years ago war chiefs of Ghana and other west African countries began the
heartbeat of the middle
passage slave trade to the Americas by selling their brethren into slavery to
Europeans and Middle Easterners. About 12.5 million people were sent to the New
World in bondage. 388,000 made it to what later became the continental U.S. Ghana now welcomes their disgruntled ancestors back.
In 2019
GhanaWeb says the country invited displaced Africans in exodus
to come sample life in West Africa in a program they called The Year of the
Return.
Democratic
leaders including Senator Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
knelt during a photo op while wearing colorful Ghanaian scarves. This later was
found to be a faux pas when some saw it as exploiting African dress for a
political prop while others pointed out the scarves were a symbol of the African aristocracy.
This
year with Ghana’s new Beyond the Return initiative the government is hoping
disillusioned blacks from the U.S. and around the world will finally find a
safe space and help boost their economy by repatriating.
Oteng-Gyasi
pleaded “We continue to open our arms and invite all our brothers and
sisters home. Ghana is your home. Africa is your home. We have our arms wide
open ready to welcome you home.
“Please
take advantage, come home, build a life in Ghana. You do not have to stay where
you are not wanted forever, you have a choice and Africa is waiting for you.”
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