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Why some Black Americans are leaving the U.S. to reclaim their "destiny" in Ghana
CBS News ^ | 9/18/2021 | Staff

Posted on 09/21/2021 7:46:00 PM PDT by simpson96

Accra, Ghana — In 2019, Ghana's president invited African descendants in the diaspora to mark the "Year of Return," commemorating 400 years since the first Africans arrived in the colony now known as Virginia on a slave ship. The invite prompted record tourism to Ghana, and an increase in Americans who applied for visas to stay.

But it was the events in the United States in 2020, and the Black Lives Matter movement, that drove a real surge in people looking to move out of America and into Africa.(snip)

Sonjiah Davis was the epitome of Washington cool. She was a well-connected, successful therapist trained to deal with emotional health. And yet, living in the capital of the United States, she says she was constantly looking over her shoulder.

"I was living what people would consider the American dream," she told Patta. "I was educated, professional. I had friends. I was a socialite… but I never felt safe."

Davis believes trauma is embedded in her DNA, from the transatlantic slave trade to the Tulsa race massacre in 1921 that saw some of her family displaced from their homes.

The trauma of racism, she said, was "beginning to take an emotional and psychological toll."

"I didn't even realize how traumatized I was, especially in regards to police," she told CBS News. "My immediate thought all the time was, 'Oh, my gosh, you know, what if a police officer pulls me over? Am I going to be physically safe? Am I going to come out of it alive?'"(snip)

"I was barely holding on. I could feel myself nearing a nervous breakdown," she said. "That's why I made the decision that I had to get out of there."

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: accra; bidenvoters; byebye; didyousearch; ghana
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To: simpson96

I’m sure she’ll be safer in africa. /s


21 posted on 09/21/2021 8:06:09 PM PDT by Trillian
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Trauma embedded in DNA ... Riiight. What s crock.


22 posted on 09/21/2021 8:11:10 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam (“If TPTB can force you to take a shot, what CAN'T they force you to take?” - T. Carlson (paraphrased)
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To: ameribbean expat

Funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time - The Amazing Racist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT3eDtCZ4t8


23 posted on 09/21/2021 8:11:56 PM PDT by Rennes Templar (Come back, President Trump.)
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To: Fai Mao

Yeah. Uhhhhm. Good luck with that !


24 posted on 09/21/2021 8:13:22 PM PDT by Truthoverpower (Arizona !!!! Now the TRUMP TRAIN is getting back on TRACK ! TRUTH! FREEDOM ! LIBERTY! I could )
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To: MayflowerMadam

What’s amazing is that Monarch Butterflies can return year after year to the same wintering grounds. But NO butterfly lives long enough to make the entire round-trip from summer home to winter home and back to summer home. It truly is embedded DNA memory in those itty-bitty butterfly brains.

Maybe it IS true she has a “embedded DNA memory.”


25 posted on 09/21/2021 8:29:13 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom ("If I’m going to get my political views from those who chase balls, I’ll ask my dog.")
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To: Truthoverpower

andrew yang comes to mind. You know. $1k/mo guaranteed. That’s $12k/yr. Give it to them to stay.


26 posted on 09/21/2021 8:29:51 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: simpson96

Not one mention of the Ashanti tribe that did the selling of black slaves from what was then not Ghana. The article is just a hate piece against America.


27 posted on 09/21/2021 8:30:45 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: simpson96

Until fairly recently, life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short for almost everyone. It still is for a lot of people. Why isn’t that trauma embedded in everyone’s DNA?


28 posted on 09/21/2021 8:33:43 PM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican (The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog. )
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To: simpson96

Can we start a go fund me or something to encourage the like-minded? This lady is clearly mentally ill. Let Ghana have her.


29 posted on 09/21/2021 8:35:12 PM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: simpson96

She apparently doesn’t realize that Ghana is where her ancestors were enslaved, thrown into the dungeons, and sold into the Middle Passage. Her ancestors weren’t enslaved by Virginia planters. They were enslaved by the warrior tribes of Africa and sold to slave dealers who resold them to Virginia planters.

And she thinks she’s “black.” In Ghana, from the looks of her picture, she would pass as white.

She thinks she can keep her therapy practice going strictly online from the other side of the ocean. Well, maybe, but ....

I give it two years, and then she’ll be back — but she’ll never stop talking about her brief experience of cultural authenticity as an American expat living big on an American financial profile in a very poor African country.


30 posted on 09/21/2021 8:35:24 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: PGR88

I knew a young man decades ago who was involved with the Nation of Islam. I don’t know what happened to him later, but he was very intelligent and I suspect he left the whole thing.

But he used to talk about leading ‘his people’ back to Africa. I’m not sure that my trying to explain to him that they wouldn’t go had much effect.

(One of my closest Black friends today says, ‘Africans live in huts and eat bugs!’

I try to explain to her that there are many beautiful and highly civilized cities in Africa now; but she wants nothing to do with it; she’s a very patriotic American.)


31 posted on 09/21/2021 8:35:47 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: simpson96

Therapist, heal they self.


32 posted on 09/21/2021 8:36:55 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: simpson96

That’s cool, anyone who wants to leave, the door is that way.......


33 posted on 09/21/2021 8:39:55 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents)(Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: simpson96

What about Liberia?

Liberia began in the early 19th century as a project of the American Colonization Society (ACS), which believed black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States.[7] Between 1822 and the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, more than 15,000 freed and free-born people of color who faced social and legal oppression in the U.S., along with 3,198 Afro-Caribbeans, relocated to Liberia.[8] Gradually developing an “Americo-Liberian” identity, the settlers carried their culture and tradition with them; the Liberian constitution and flag were modeled after those of the U.S., while its capital was named after ACS supporter and U.S. President James Monroe. Liberia declared independence on July 26, 1847, which the U.S. did not recognize until February 5, 1862. On January 3, 1848, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a wealthy, free-born African American from the U.S. state of Virginia who settled in Liberia, was elected Liberia’s first president after the people proclaimed independence.[8]

The Americo-Liberian settlers did not relate well to the indigenous peoples they encountered, especially those living in the more isolated “bush”. Colonial settlements were raided by the Kru and Grebo from their inland chiefdoms. Americo-Liberians promoted religious organizations to set up missions and schools to educate the native populace.[9] Americo-Liberians formed into a small elite that held disproportionate political power; indigenous Africans were excluded from birthright citizenship in their own land until 1904.[9][10]

In 1980, political tensions from the rule of William R. Tolbert resulted in a military coup during which Tolbert was killed, marking the end of Americo-Liberian rule in the country and beginning over two decades of political instability. Five years of military rule by the People’s Redemption Council and five years of civilian rule by the National Democratic Party of Liberia were followed by the First and Second Liberian Civil Wars. These resulted in the deaths of 250,000 people (about 8% of the population) and the displacement of many more, with Liberia’s economy shrinking by 90%.[11] A peace agreement in 2003 led to democratic elections in 2005, in which Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected president, making history as the first female president in the continent. National infrastructure and basic social services were severely affected by the conflicts as well as by the 2013–2016 outbreak of Ebola virus, with 83% of the population living below the international poverty line as of 2015.[12]

In 1927, the country’s elections again showed the power of the True Whig Party, with electoral proceedings that have been called some of the most rigged ever; the winning candidate was declared to have received votes amounting to more than 15 times the number of eligible voters. (The loser actually received around 60% of the eligible vote.)

Soon after, allegations of modern slavery in Liberia led the League of Nations to establish the Christy commission. Findings included government involvement in widespread “Forced or compulsory labour”. Minority ethnic groups especially were exploited in a system that enriched well-connected elites.[37] As a result of the report, President Charles D. B. King and Vice President Allen N. Yancy resigned.[38]

In the mid-20th century Liberia gradually began to modernize with American assistance. During World War II the United States made major infrastructure improvements to support its military efforts in Africa and Europe against Germany. It built the Freeport of Monrovia and Roberts International Airport under the Lend-Lease program before its entry into the Second World War.[39]

......
Liberia became internationally known as a pariah state due to its use of blood diamonds and illegal timber exports to fund the Revolutionary United Front in the Sierra Leone Civil War.[47] The Second Liberian Civil War began in 1999 when Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, a rebel group based in the northwest of the country, launched an armed insurrection against Taylor.[48]

.......
Following the 2017 Liberian general election, former professional football striker George Weah, one of the greatest African players of all time,[60][61] was sworn in as president on 22 January 2018, becoming the 4th youngest serving president in Africa.[62] The inauguration marked Liberia’s first fully democratic transition in 74 years.[63] Weah cited fighting corruption, reforming the economy, combating illiteracy and improving life conditions as the main targets of his presidency.[63]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberia


34 posted on 09/21/2021 8:41:38 PM PDT by Rusty0604 (" When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat." -Ronald Reagan)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

25. My Monarchs wear tiny GPS devices so that can they can find my Buddhleia bush without any problems. /sarc


35 posted on 09/21/2021 8:42:42 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: simpson96

This would be like white Americans wanting to move to Moldova or Belarus.


36 posted on 09/21/2021 9:01:30 PM PDT by LukeL
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To: simpson96

Good riddance.

It would be nice if more America hating leftists also did the same.

Don’t like it here?

Nobody is forcing you to stay.


37 posted on 09/21/2021 9:04:09 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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To: Telepathic Intruder

She may be right and you wrong. Epigenetic research has established that significant environmental events can effectively “turn on” genes, and the resulting phenotype can be transmitted to offspring. It is likely that she understands DNA and how it functions, better than you do.


38 posted on 09/21/2021 9:12:21 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative.)
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To: simpson96

I spent a month in Ghana several years ago. Travelled the whole country from south to north. Slept on the ground in a mud hut several times. Ghana is, I perceive, a wonderful country compared to much of Africa, but by our standards it is a crap hole.

There is no country in the world that has a significant black population, in which blacks are as free and prosperous as the USA. Certainly not Ghana or any other coountry in Africa.


39 posted on 09/21/2021 9:16:14 PM PDT by Lucas McCain
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To: simpson96
"My immediate thought all the time was, 'Oh, my gosh, you know, what if a police officer pulls me over? Am I going to be physically safe? Am I going to come out of it alive?'"

Considering that Washington D.C. is the crime capitol of the U.S and that rates of black-on-black crime are soaring... that is not where I expected she was going with this.

40 posted on 09/21/2021 9:35:04 PM PDT by ponygirl (An Appeal to Heaven )
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