Street debate: Can Afro-Americans help Ghana's economy thrive?

DW (English)

In this week's street debate, Edith Kimani meets with locals and Afro-Americans who have relocated to Ghana to explore the challenges and opportunities sparked by the "year of return."

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome back to the 77% Street debate. This week, we are back in Ghana's capital

00:11of Accra. Now, 400 years ago, the first women, men and children forcibly stolen from this

00:19continent arrived on the other side of the Atlantic in America. Fast forward many years

00:24later, and the government, the modern government of Ghana is saying to its international descendants,

00:29come back home. But what does that integration look like? And I want to start with you, Professor

00:34Kambon. I went through what a lot of black people go through, which is a trumped up charge,

00:39racism and so forth. They don't ask you, are you a, you know, citizen who's benefiting

00:43the community and so forth. So I decided that I was coming here to do my PhD. I did so I'm

00:48doing pretty well. I've been instilled as a traditional ruler. So this was given to

00:52me by the Nsumankwa Heni, the overall spiritual head of all of the Asante people. It's about

00:56being accepted. It's about being respected. And those are things that you don't get under

01:00Donald Trump and the divided snakes of a murderer.

01:03Wow. Those are some very strong words that you've chosen to use. And I want to come to

01:07the Bradbees here who are a couple. And oh gosh, the couple's here always holding hands.

01:12It's so cute. But they've also just joined a union, a lifelong union with Ghana. You

01:19got your citizenship yesterday. And there's something that the professor said here. Is

01:23this how you considered America, where you actually grew up?

01:27We moved for our safety and our children's safety. It is unsafe in the States, no matter

01:32where you go, if you look like us. Getting out of the land of our enemy was priority

01:36number one, to make sure that no matter what we did to build a business or to simply just

01:42live the simple life, we will be protected in that.

01:45Nakia, is this also what you think?

01:47For me, even I think back when I was in school and going to university, I remember I used

01:52to go on my phone and try to find an app to listen to Radio Stacey's And I Cry, just

01:59to hear the language. And I remember one night I would just sit in there and I almost just

02:04cried, just to know that this was taken from me.

02:09You're shaking now. You have goosebumps everywhere.

02:12Because my great, great grandmothers, these are the songs that they would sing. These

02:18are the languages that they would use. And we don't have them anymore. And it's even

02:22hard to explain how that stealing of our identity impacts our hearts. And so when you

02:30see us celebrating, when you see us happy to be in Ghana, it's because we're trying

02:33to heal that wound that was placed.

02:36Thank you so much for being so honest and vulnerable with us. I appreciate that. So

02:40Adam and Charetta, you're raising two beautiful children here. How has that experience been

02:44for you? And what are some of the degrading so far?

02:46In the States, we lived a very isolated lifestyle because of safety. You want to go out, you

02:53want to take your kids to the park to play. But when you do, other kids spit at them.

03:00That is an experience that my son had at the playground on more than one occasion. And

03:04so we live a very isolated life. So to be here and to be free and to see my kids be

03:10able to be joyful and that not be a crime has been a very, very beautiful thing.

03:17Okay, I really love how beautiful this is sounding. And I'm just going to throw a little

03:21bit of pepper in here. So I want to know from the people at the back, anybody, if you got

03:26a chance, are you taking the plane to get out of Ghana? Let me see by show of hands

03:29if your answer is yes. When you hear these people come and say, hey, this is a beautiful

03:34country, we need to reinvest back on the continent. How does that make you feel?

03:37I feel it's because they have money, that's why they are coming back home. But for me,

03:41I want to leave the country because the economy here is very bad.

03:44Let me hear one more person at the back.

03:46I would love to leave the country. Like just as they are saying, when they were coming,

03:51they came with money, which is making their life comfortable. But we in the country, people

03:55are struggling on the streets. If such person get opportunity, in fact, the person will

04:01leave the country.

04:02Prof, what do you make of it when you hear that the local population here already has

04:06an assumption that you're wealthier, that there's an income disparity inbuilt?

04:11I had translators coming from the University of Ghana at a conference that I just had,

04:16and we hired them to teach chi. They had two students, from the two students who were paying

04:21them, they were able to get enough money to pay their entire master's degree for one year.

04:25And that was a message that they learned. There's someone in the world who wants any

04:29skill that you know how to do, and they're willing to pay you richly to do it.

04:34Let me ask Jeff what he thinks here, because he is swallowing hard. I don't know if you

04:38think this is great advice or if you see it as somewhat condescending. What are your views?

04:43I heard my sister from behind me say that these people have money coming in. Yes, they

04:49may think that what they have is not enough for them as they come in here, but it brings

04:54a certain gap. But at the end of the day, once the prices go up, it doesn't come down.

04:58And we are the ones who suffer eventually. And that is a problem we are facing here today.

05:02Their presence is actually creating a problem for us economically.

05:05Mr Kwesi, obviously these emotional sentiments have the potential to become something else.

05:10Xenophobia, Afrophobia. Are you just telling people come in or are you putting in place

05:15strategies so that integration is sustainable and seamless?

05:19When we started a year of return, the prices of goods more than quadrupled, because people

05:23thought, hey, this is a year of return, we have an opportunity, let's milk it. But then

05:28we had to meet with people at the art centre, with the tour operators, with hotels to explain

05:32to them that this is for the long term, that this is not just an open window for you to

05:37cash in. So when I talk about cultural integration, it's also looking at how do we make sure that

05:42people understand what we are doing and they are not taking advantage of our brothers and

05:45sisters who are coming back.

05:47Jennifer, because you're the latest arrival, if I could call you that, do you feel that

05:52because of your accent, sometimes people want to take advantage of you?

05:57I would say that sometimes that is true, but it's not just true for African-Americans.

06:02I think it's true for anyone that has an American or UK accent, even if they're Ghanaian. When

06:06we're talking about Ghana, Ghana is a country that has a population of over 30 million people.

06:11There may be 10,000 African-Americans. We're an extreme minority. So I think that sometimes

06:16we're used as a scapegoat and that is misplaced.

06:18Okay. But what I'm hearing is that black we may be, but our bank accounts surely are not

06:23the same. Let me find out from Jeff how he feels hearing all these sentiments, because

06:27these are now your countrymen and women. Are you aligned with their values?

06:32We are happy they are here and would wish that we can co-exist with them without having

06:37any problem whatsoever. If we see our brothers and sisters, irrespective of even the color,

06:42even if it's a white person coming to buy something, let the pricing be as it is. You

06:48understand? And maybe governments and the state agencies need to establish some kind

06:52of price control regimes so that everywhere you go, the prices will be the same.

06:59Okay. You wanted to say something to me earlier.

07:01I try. We try to shop in our neighborhood and because we are new and because we don't

07:07speak the language that well yet, we're learning, but the prices get hiked up. And so then we

07:13are forced to go somewhere else to spend our money. And we would prefer to spend it in

07:19our neighborhood, but they're hiking the price up because we're new. They don't know us yet,

07:24but it makes it harder for us when that happens to us. And it's unfair.

07:29Okay. Can I say something?

07:31You know, you got to really understand culture to understand people. You know, when you come

07:35to Ghana-

07:36But people is culture.

07:37Yes. But when you come to Ghana, shopping is part of the culture. So it's important

07:42for us to start to look at culture and then influence culture in a way where we can bridge

07:47the difference and then we can progress as one.

07:52The journey has now brought you here and given everything that you've heard, what do you

07:56think it's going to take for everybody here to stop saying them, the Diasporans, the Ghanaians

08:02into we, the Ghanaians?

08:05I'm not coming with a successful business or retirement. We didn't come here to make

08:08money stretch. We came to contribute. So the amount of money that you guys think we

08:13have, at least us two, we do not have.

08:16Okay. But what about people who go out and make it and make things of themselves?

08:20That's a very small percentage. And of course, they're going to show you that on television.

08:24That's a very small percentage. And of course, that's what they're going to show you. But

08:28like she said, you go there, it is not as cushy as you think. Great, you get a fancy

08:33job before you get there, but the police gun you down before you even make the money. That

08:37is a reality.

08:38I just want to close with Prof, because we started with you. Answer the question for

08:42me. How do we go from them, the Diasporans, the Ghanaians to we?

08:48So I think conversations like these are very much necessary. Even Ghanaians, when they

08:51go travel to places like the US, they're told don't hang out with the black people because

08:55they're all drug dealers, because they're all gangbangers, because they're all this that.

08:59And you know, they'll say, oh, Africans are all poor. The one who benefits from the problem

09:03is most likely the one who caused the problem in the first place. And we're the ones who

09:07can solve that problem.

09:08Wow, thank you so much. Yeah. So there are a lot of things that this debate was not.

09:15It was not about confirming whether or not the people who've returned are African. That

09:19was never in question. They were, always have been, and always will be. This debate actually

09:24affirmed the words of Kwame Nkrumah right there, the doctor. He is not African simply

09:29because he was born here. But to be African is to have Africa born in you. Thank you for

09:33watching.

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