As the drums roll and the colours of heritage return in celebration of PANAFEST and the Emancipation Festival, we are once again reminded of the painful legacy of slavery and colonialism. This moment in our calendar is more than just a cultural event, it is a sacred opportunity to reflect, reconnect, and rethink our collective approach to reparations and healing.
While many African leaders continue to demand monetary reparations from the West for the transatlantic slave trade and its enduring consequences, we must pause and ask ourselves: what are we doing to repair the damage done to each other?
The brutal truth, often unspoken, is that some of the injustices African Diasporans face today come not from the colonial powers they escaped, but from the hands of their own kin upon return. These are brothers and sisters descendants of the very ones who were forcibly taken from our shores, longing to reconnect, reinvest, and rebuild on the continent of their ancestors.
Yet, when they arrive in Africa, particularly in Ghana, they face bureaucratic, legal, and even social barriers that communicate one message: you are still outsiders.
Consider the difficulties African Diasporans face in acquiring Ghanaian citizenship. According to the Ghana Citizenship Act, 2000 (Act 591), a person of African descent must live in Ghana for a number of years before becoming eligible to apply for naturalization. Even then, the process is lengthy, bureaucratic, and uncertain.
In comparison, many Western countries offer citizenship by investment, marriage, or special consideration in far less time.
In 2019, under the “Year of Return” campaign, the government of Ghana granted citizenship to 126 African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans. In 2024, about 500 were granted citizenship. While this was a laudable gesture, it was largely symbolic. In a continent of over a billion people with millions in the Diaspora eager to reconnect, that number is a drop in the ocean.
Another painful irony is how African Diasporans are treated under Ghana’s property laws. Until they acquire Ghanaian citizenship, they are treated no differently from foreigners. According to the 1992 Constitution of Ghana (Article 266), non-citizens can only lease land for up to 50 years, a stark contrast to the 99-year lease available to citizens. This legal limitation discourages long-term investment and settlement.
Moreover, registering a business as a non-citizen under the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Act, 2013 (Act 865), requires a foreigner to invest a minimum of $200,000 USD and to employ at least 10 Ghanaians. While this law aims to protect local businesses, it unintentionally hinders Africans from the Diaspora, many of whom may not have such capital but wish to contribute to the continent’s development with their skills and savings.
Perhaps more painful than the laws are the betrayals by our own people. There are multiple cases of African Diasporans being defrauded by locals while trying to purchase land, establish a business, or build a home. Just as some of our ancestors sold their own brothers and sisters into slavery in exchange for rum, gunpowder, and mirrors, today’s betrayals take the form of land scams, forged documents, and exploitative “middlemen.”
It is no secret that certain families and clans once boasted of slave ownership as a sign of wealth and status. Some African chiefs and merchants served as middlemen in the slave trade, enriching themselves at the expense of their own kinsmen. Today, the same spirit of opportunism lives on, only the form has changed.
As the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe once wrote: “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” We must tell the truth about the African role in slavery, not to blame or shame, but to heal, correct, and reform our present-day actions.
Instead of begging the West endlessly for monetary reparations something that will likely never come. We must focus on internal reparations. That begins with creating an enabling environment for African Diasporans to return, resettle, and reintegrate. The best form of reparation is not money. It is recognition, restoration, and reintegration.
Imagine a Ghana or Nigeria or Senegal where African Americans, Caribbeans, and Afro-Europeans can easily:
1. Acquire citizenship through ancestry-based fast-track mechanisms,
2. Own land on equal terms with citizens,
3. Register businesses with fair terms based on skills, not just capital,
4. Serve in public office, civil service, and academia without discrimination.
This vision is not far-fetched. Rwanda has already begun such reforms. In 2021, it launched the “Come and Invest” initiative targeting African Diasporans, offering ease of residency and business registration. Sierra Leone has granted dual citizenship to Diasporans with proven ancestry. Ghana, with its symbolic leadership through the Year of Return and Beyond the Return campaigns, must now move from symbolism to systemic change.
Ghana, under “The Year of Return” and “Beyond The Return” initiatives opened hosted many renowned Africans from the diaspora, some of whom have become “citizens”. Others have also established businesses and charities to assist the vulnerable. Others have also been conferred with chieftaincy titles, enabling them to contribute to the local communities.
Much as these are worth celebrating, the linkage between African Diaspora Academicians, Industrialists, and other professionals in the area of Finance, Research, Entrepreneurship, The Arts and Innovation among others, need to be formalised.
This is a message to African governments and traditional authorities: reparations must begin with us. We must open the doors to our kinsmen, not as foreigners, not as investors only, but as family. It is not an achievement for any government to announce that it has “granted citizenship” to those who are already of our blood. That should be the default, not the exception.
We must revise our laws and simplify the processes to reflect this truth. Traditional Authorities must serve not just as custodians of land, but as welcomers of lost children returning home. Let the palaces become sanctuaries of restoration, not arenas of extortion.
To our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora: raise your voices. Demand change, not just from the West, but from African governments. Push for dual citizenship, ancestral land rights, and fair treatment. Invest, collaborate, and educate, but also advocate for policies that acknowledge your identity and potential.
Yes, the challenges might hurt. But remember: we forgave our colonial masters. We rebuilt relationships with them. Surely, we can forgive our kinsmen who were misled or ignorant, and together chart a path of unity.
As Nelson Mandela said: “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” Let us not dwell in anger, but act with purpose and vision.
As we prepare to celebrate yet another PANAFEST and Emancipation Festival, let us remember that cultural dances, colourful clothing, and powerful speeches must lead to practical policy reforms. Let us use this occasion to rebuild trust with our long-lost siblings and build a home where they are no longer visitors, but vital citizens of the African future.
Enough of begging the West for reparations.
Let’s begin the work of healing at home.
By D. Deladem Kisseih.
A journalist and Pan-American
Email:[email protected]
