{"id":43352,"date":"2026-08-05T19:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T17:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/?p=43352"},"modified":"2026-08-07T19:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T17:45:14","slug":"west-african-countries-offer-citizenship-to-descendants-of-enslaved-africans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/west-african-countries-offer-citizenship-to-descendants-of-enslaved-africans\/","title":{"rendered":"West African Countries Offer Citizenship to Descendants of Enslaved Africans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Kirstie Kwarteng<\/p>\n<p><strong>Highlights<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-content-item-header__description\">West African governments are offering citizenship to descendants of enslaved Africans and other diaspora members as both a symbolic act of reparative justice and a practical strategy to attract investment, skills, and tourism.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-content-item-header__highlights-text o-content-from-editor\">\n<ul>\n<li>Benin, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone have launched special citizenship pathways for members of the historic African diaspora, granting at least 1,213 people citizenship since 2016.<\/li>\n<li>Program design varies widely: Benin has a fully codified law, while others rely on executive action and other approaches that can be less predictable.<\/li>\n<li>The policies have generated tensions and criticism around DNA testing requirements, high fees, and uneven implementation, as well as the prospect that returnees increase the cost of living.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Read further: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.migrationpolicy.org\/journal\/feature\/west-africa-diaspora-citizenship\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.migrationpolicy.org\/journal\/feature\/west-africa-diaspora-citizenship<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Kirstie Kwarteng Highlights West African governments are offering citizenship to descendants of enslaved Africans and other diaspora members as both a symbolic act of reparative justice and a practical strategy to attract investment, skills, and tourism. Benin, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone have launched special citizenship pathways for members of the historic African diaspora, [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","region-benin","region-ghana","region-guinea-bissau","region-sierra-leone","region-west-africa","type-blog-posts","item-year-699","item-theme-discrimination","item-theme-ethnic-racial-religious","item-theme-naturalisation-and-marriage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43353,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43352\/revisions\/43353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}