It certainly is...
Posted on 01/19/2018 8:53:23 AM PST by Red Badger
Accra, Ghana - They have come from the big cities of San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. Thousands of them. And many refuse to return.
A new wave of African Americans is escaping the incessant racism and prejudice in the United States. From Senegal and Ghana to The Gambia, communities are emerging in defiance of conventional wisdom that Africa is a continent everyone is trying to leave.
It is estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 African Americans live in Accra, the Ghanaian capital. They are teachers in small towns in the west or entrepreneurs in the capital and say they that even though living in Ghana is not always easy, they feel free and safe.
Take Muhammida el-Muhajir, a digital marketer from New York City, who left her job to move to Accra.
She says she moved, because despite her education and experience, she was always made to feel like a second-class citizen. Moving was an opportunity to fulfil her potential and avoid being targeted by racial violence.
She told Al Jazeera her story: On life as a second-class citizen in the US...
"I grew up in Philadelphia and then New York. I went to Howard, which is a historically black university. I tell people that Ghana is like Howard in real life. It felt like a microcosm of the world. At university, they tell us the world isn't black, but there are places where this is the real world. Howard prepares you for a world where black people are in charge, which is a completely different experience compared to people who have gone to predominantly white universities."
I can't say what's happening in America today is any worse than what's been happening at any other time.
Muhammida el-Muhajir
On her first trip to Africa...
"The first country I went to was Kenya. I was 15 and travelled with a group of kids. I was one of two black kids. I saw early that I could fit in and wasn't an outsider. Suddenly it switched, I came from America where I was an outsider, but in Africa, I no longer felt like that. I did graduate school in Ghana in 2003 and went back to New York and then moved to Ghana in 2014.
"I have no connection to Ghana. Some people in my family did tests, and we found ties to Senegal and The Gambia, but I don't think you can ever figure it out. No matter where you were sold or left the port, Senegal or Ghana, no one can be certain where you came from."
No matter where you were sold or left the port, Senegal or Ghana, no one can be certain where you came from.
On leaving New York for Accra...
"Even when you live in a place like New York as a black person, you're always an outsider.
"You hear stories about the richest black people, like Oprah Winfrey, getting shut out of a store or Jay-Z not being allowed to buy [an apartment]. Those things happen. It doesn't matter if you're a celebrity, you're a second-class citizen. This was the biggest issue for me.
"In America, you're always trying to prove yourself; I don't need to prove myself to anyone else's standards here. I'm a champion, I ran track and went to university, and I like to win, so I refuse to be in a situation where I will never win."
You might not have electricity, but you won't get killed by the police either.
Muhammida el-Muhajir
On moving to Ghana...
"There are amenities that I am used to at home in New York - like parties, open bars and fashion, so when I realised I could do the same things in Africa as I could back in the US, I was sold. There is also a big street art festival here, and that was the difference from when I came [as a student]. I saw the things that I love at home here, so I decided that now is the time." On Ghanaian reactions...
"When Ghanaians find out that I live here, they're usually confused about why I chose to live here as an American. There is definitely certain access and privilege being American here, but it's great to finally cash in on that because it doesn't mean anything in America.
"There are also plenty of privileged Ghanaians; if you take away race there's a class system."
On the 'Blaxit' documentary...
"In my documentary, I chose five people that I've met since I've been here and every one of them went to a black college in the US. It's something that prepares you mentally to realise you aren't a second-class citizen. Something like that can help you make a transition to live in Africa.
"I made Blaxit because of this wave of African-Americans moving to Africa. This trend started to happen around independence of African countries, but the new wave [comprises] people who come to places like this. This new group has certain access in America and comes here to have that lifestyle in Africa.
"Unbeknown to us, we're living out the vision that [Ghanaian politician and revolutionary] Kwame Nkrumah set out for us, of this country being the gateway to Africa for the black diaspora.
"I don't want people to think that Africa is this magic utopia where all your issues will go away. It's just that some of the things you might face in America as a black person - you won't have to suffer with those things here.
"You might not have electricity, but you won't get killed by the police either.
"I want people to understand that they have options and alternatives. Most black people in America don't know that these options exist; they think they have to suffer because there's nowhere else to go. But no, there are other places." On the prospect of more African-Americans moving...
"I think more will come when they begin to see it as a viable alternative. But it's not easy and it's not cheap. I can't say what's happening in America today is any worse than what's been happening at any other time. I think now is the time that people are starting to see they can live somewhere else."
This interview was edited for clarity and length.
It certainly is...
The Liberian Civil War arose when “city Liberians” (usually descended from freed slaves from the US that returned to Africa - the country was founded in 1847) oppressed the “country Liberians” (less-sophisticated people who had no ancestry outside of Africa) to the point where they were practically slaves. In the early 1990s it came to a head and the slaves threw the black slavemasters out (after killing many of them).
Didn’t the store deny her version of what happened?
I watched a West African co-worker chastise a black American woman who insisted her daughter wanted to move to Africa after the 2000 election; he was here on some type of temporary refugee visa which allowed him to work, and he lobbied with a group to make them permanent. He volunteered to tell this co-worker’s naïve daughter exactly what life is like in Africa.
Any time the narrative comes up where there it is asserted there is an epidemic of black men being shot by police officers, here is the statistic that should lead off the ensuing conversation:
Not only that, the "African-Africans" have historically been less than welcoming toward their American cousins - even as short-term tourists. I doubt if that has changed.
Even cheaper would be refitted cargo ships or cruise ships taken out of service just prior to modernization. Imagine the reaction to a Royal Carribean Amistad Voyager.
True; they are shocked at how they squander opportunity and lack ambition (I’m speaking of the African-Africans ambitious enough to get out). Most of Africa has no food stamp or Section 8 program along the lines of ours; I just don’t believe Africans would welcome people who want everything handed to them.
Or the neighboring tribe.
Of course you will get killed by the police. Get real. Criminals is criminals. Malaria is malaria. Cholera is cholera. Etc. Sounds like a Utopian Dream to me, but welcome to it.
Of course you stand out in a country that is 90% white. That is nothing anyone can change, actually.
I think this would be a good trend.
Have all the black people who feel as this woman does move to African countries.
Everybody benefits.
“...Why some African Americans are moving to Africa...”
So, are they going to call themselves American-Africans?
There was a great book I read a while back called Out Of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa
One of the things he said (that he was later excoriated for) was that the degree of racism was exacerbated by extreme tribalism. He was there during Rwandan Genocide, and he had originally not thought that he could be imperiled as a black man (since he was black like they were) but came to find out that even having facial features that could be attributed to one tribe or another would be enough to make him fear for his life.
He wrote with a heartfelt genuineness how great it was to be an American in America, and was turned on by many in the leftist component of the black community for the perceived criticism of blacks and Africa.
I am assuming that she went all in and gave up her citizenship to this awful, racist country she escaped.
Do the blacks in Italy call themselves AfricanItalians?
Let's see how that works for them....
You are spot on. Any black person who rejects the current black culture which glorifies racism, misogyny, lawbreaking, opposition to law and order, out of wedlock birth, rap, and other aspects of “gangsta culture” is almost always going to succeed in America.
And they will succeed because they are being part of America...not part of a dysfunctional, violent and repulsive tribe.
Or African-American-Africans?
If your name is really Muhammida el-Muhajir...
Then yeah. You probably are a better fit in Africa.
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