African Americans moving to Ghana have a new high-profile face. On Jan. 28, Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa announced his ministry had approved a Ghanaian passport for IShowSpeed, the American YouTuber whose “Speed Does Africa” tour had spanned 20 countries and drawn tens of millions of livestream viewers. Born Darren Jason Watkins Jr. in Cincinnati, the 21-year-old was the only creator on the tour to walk away with formal citizenship status from a host country. Ablakwa called him a “worthy ambassador.”
It was a peak moment for the country’s diaspora brand. Four days later, the messaging flipped.
On Feb. 1, the Ministry of the Interior and the Diaspora Affairs Office of the President jointly suspended the Ghana citizenship process for the historical African diaspora. The timing was awkward. Days earlier, the government had launched a formal Dual Citizenship Drive with an application window scheduled for Feb. 2 through 6 at the World Trade Center in Accra.
That window never opened.
Why African Americans moving to Ghana hit a wall
Officials framed the pause as a “strategic recalibration.” The stated targets were high fees, a one-week documentation deadline, and a DNA ancestry-test requirement that critics said priced out most of the diaspora the program was meant to serve.
Erieka Bennett, ambassador for the Diaspora African Forum, told the BBC the one-week DNA window was “impossible” for most applicants and that some questioned the tests’ reliability. Cost was the other flashpoint. Applicants paid a $136 (£100) initial application fee, with shortlisted candidates owing a further $2,280 (£1,700). All fees were non-refundable.
Diaspora groups didn’t wait for the government to announce a fix. On Feb. 1, the African American Association of Ghana, Decade of Our Repatriation, and 12 allied organizations convened an emergency town hall at the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies.
Their joint resolution argued the DNA requirement and steep fee created two tracks of belonging within Ghana.
How the African diaspora citizenship reset happened
By Feb. 11, the program was back. The DNA requirement was dropped, the upfront application fee was eliminated, and vetting moved to the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre in Accra.
The ceremony went ahead. On March 9 at the Accra International Conference Centre, more than 150 members of the African diaspora took the Oath of Allegiance, administered by Circuit Court Judge Annette Sophia Essel. Ghana’s state-owned Ghanaian Times put the final figure at 155.
The Diaspora Affairs Office said it had received roughly 3,000 applications during the abbreviated window. Vice President Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang attended and described the diaspora as Africa’s “sixth region.” It was the first such ceremony under President John Mahama’s administration, which took office in January.
Ghana citizenship for African Americans: from the Year of Return to now
Ghana’s modern diaspora program traces to 2019, when President Nana Akufo-Addo declared the Year of Return, marking 400 years since the first recorded enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619.
That November, Akufo-Addo presided over a Jubilee House ceremony naturalizing 126 people of African descent, most of them African Americans and Caribbeans. By year’s end, more than 200 diaspora returnees held Ghanaian citizenship.
Akufo-Addo then unveiled Beyond the Return, a ten-year framework for investment, heritage tourism, and pathways to residency and citizenship. COVID-19 stalled the rollout through 2021.
The November 2024 ceremony was the breakthrough. At the Accra International Conference Centre, 524 members of the African diaspora from the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe took the oath. It was the largest diaspora naturalization in Ghana’s history. By the end of 2024, Ghana had granted citizenship to roughly 800 diaspora Africans since the 2016 pilot. The March 2026 ceremony pushed the cumulative total past 950.
What Ghana citizenship buys, and where the friction is
The practical benefits matter. New citizens gain the right to own land in perpetuity; foreign nationals are limited to 50-year leases. Returnees have launched businesses in real estate, hospitality and tech across Accra.
By some estimates, more than 1,500 African Americans have relocated to Ghana since 2019.
The friction between African Americans moving to Ghana and the locals is real. Many Ghanaians have raised concerns about Accra rents driven up in part by diaspora demand. One Accra resident told the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation his landlord was raising rent from $111 to $800 a month. AE has covered this dynamic in Coming Home, Priced Out.
A proposed Homeland Return Bill is reportedly in the works that would create a permanent legal framework for diaspora residency and citizenship, moving past ad hoc presidential ceremonies. Whether that legislation moves under Mahama remains an open question.
What the data does and doesn’t show about Americans living in Ghana
Roughly 950 naturalizations over a decade is a small figure in absolute terms. The 1,500 American returnees frequently cited by diaspora groups is an estimate, not a tracked statistic. Ghana’s Statistical Service does not publish a count of resident US citizens.
What the February pause and rapid reset do show is operational. The government scrapped a major program requirement and a major fee structure within ten days of public pressure. The 3,000 applications received in a compressed window suggest demand outstrips capacity.
No other African nation has moved this aggressively on diaspora naturalization. Benin and Sierra Leone are developing their own models, and the Ghana program is the one regional competitors are pricing against.
