Returning to Africa: People of African descent seek unique status
Published: 13/Jun/2025
Source: UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
By deciding to open citizenship applications to all people of African descent around the world, Benin became the latest in a growing list of African countries to formerly recognize historical links with the African diaspora.
Benin’s 2 September 2024 law on citizenship for people of African descent, further clarified by the law of 9 April 2025, has been welcomed because of its limited conditionalities. People of African descent who make the request to acquire Beninese citizenship only need to show that they are over 18 years old, that they are not a citizen of another African country and have proof of their descendance through civil status documentation or a State recognized DNA test.
Benin noted that its efforts to formally recognize the existing link between people of African descent and Africa were taken in the context of the International Decade for People of African Descent.
“People of African descent are not simply distant members of our family. They are our children, our brothers, our sisters. They embody an essential part of our collective identity. By recognizing their right of return, we are saying to them: ‘You have never ceased to belong to this land. Africa is your home, and we welcome you with open arms,’” said Olushegun Adjadi Bakari, Benin’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, during a speech delivered at the UN General in New York, in September 2024.
Recognition of historical ties
In the mid-19th century, Liberia became the first African nation to offer descendants of enslaved Africans from the United States of America the possibility to return. In 2000, Ghana introduced the “Right of Abode” Act, granting unrestricted rights to travel and work in the country for African descents and the diaspora. Further, Sierra Leone developed a descent-based initiative granting citizenship for individuals with verified ancestral ties to the country.
Apart from these legal steps, some African countries encouraged the reconnection with people of African descent through various initiatives such as Gambia’s Roots Festival, inviting Africans and people of African descent to commemorate the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and celebrate the richness and diversity of Gambian and African cultures. Further, Ghana’s 2018 “Year of Return” invited people of African descent and the diaspora to Ghana to mark 400 years since the beginning of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans.
More recently, in January 2025, Guinea-Bissau granted citizenship and delivered national passports to a first group of people of African descent following advocacy by civil society organizations that had called for such recognition.
“The transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans deprived Africa of its workforce, effectively stunting the development of the continent. On the other side of the Atlantic, by the 19th century, emancipated Africans and their descendants questioned whether they would ever be able to improve their livelihoods in the societies that enslaved them, or whether they would have better economic and social opportunities by going back to Africa,” June Soomer, former Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent said. “This pan-Africanist idea was and still is an important way to take back agency, for the people and the African continent.”
Read further: https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2025/06/returning-africa-people-african-descent-seek-unique-status