Wedaeli Chibelushi<\/p>\n
Published
\n7 February 2026<\/p>\n
Although their forefathers were seized from West and Central Africa centuries ago, the bond between African-Americans and their ancestral home has been a lasting one.<\/p>\n
For instance, Liberia, Africa’s oldest republic, was founded by freed black American slaves in 1822. After Ghana became independent in 1957, a wave of black intellectuals and artists moved there from the US. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali subsequently paid high-profile visits to Ghana, while Guinea became home to Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael.<\/p>\n
This transatlantic connection has ebbed and flowed over time – but in recent years, there has been a real resurgence, helped by the use of DNA tests.<\/p>\n
A number of black American celebrities have sought the nationality of African countries – singer Ciara has become a citizen of Benin, rapper Ludacris and film star Samuel L Jackson are officially Gabonese, actors Meagan Good and Jonathan Majors are citizens of Guinea and musical icon Stevie Wonder has Ghanaian papers.<\/p>\n
Just last week, wildly popular content creator IShowSpeed was approved for a Ghanaian passport after stopping in the country on a whirlwind African tour.<\/p>\n
The celebs have, in most cases, flown out for elaborate citizenship ceremonies and tours of local beauty spots, all of which have been captured for glossy social media content.<\/p>\n
Posting photos of her citizenship ceremony in Guinea, Meagan Good told her 7.8m Instagram followers last month: “This is history in motion”.<\/p>\n
Good, who has featured in films like Think Like A Man and Saw V, and her husband Majors, known for Creed and Marvel flick Ant-Man and the Wasp, became citizens after DNA testing traced their ancestry to Guinea.<\/p>\n
“This recognition goes beyond titles, it is a homecoming and a reconnection to our Afrodescendant roots,” said Good.<\/p>\n
Messaging from the various African governments has echoed this sentiment.<\/p>\n
“In conferring Ghanaian citizenship upon Stevie Wonder,” former president Nana Akufo-Addo said at Wonder’s 2024 ceremony, “we not only extend our warmest embrace to a beloved son of Africa but also reaffirm our belief in the enduring spirit of pan-Africanism and the global African family”.<\/p>\n
Ghana has long promoted its pan-African credentials – for a decade anyone whose ancestors came from Africa have been entitled to Ghanaian nationality, a policy that arguably inspired Benin to launch a similar scheme.<\/p>\n