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The Documentary: The Return

Ghana: The year of return

16/01/2024 GMT

The Return

BBC World Service - The Documentary, The Return

The African-Americans who have moved to Ghana through the Year of Return initiative

The African-Americans who have moved to Ghana through the government's Year of Return initiative.

To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first recorded enslaved Africans in Virginia, America, in 2019, Ghana launched the Year of Return, an initiative to encourage the African diaspora to invest, settle and visit. After a positive response, a 10-year follow-up initiative called Beyond the Return was launched in 2020 to further promote investment, migration and tourism.

As a result there has been an increase in visitor numbers, particularly from the United States with thousands of African-Americans making the trip across the Atlantic. Some have decided to stay. At least 1500 people have since moved to the West African country from the US and there are over 5000 African-Americans currently living in Ghana. 

Dr Ashley Milton is one of them. An environmental science and policy expert and entrepreneur, Dr Milton relocated from Washington DC to Ghana’s capital Accra just as the Year of Return was being launched.

Dr Milton meets African-Americans who now call Ghana home. From a Marine Corps veteran who grew up in Los Angeles to a single mother from Atlanta, through varying stories of assimilation, hope, identity and migration, Ashley highlights the personal experiences of those who have moved to Ghana.

Producer: Neil Kanwal 
A C60 Media production for BBC World Service

(Photo: The former slave fort of Cape Coast Castle of the 16th Century, now a Unesco World Heritage site. Credit: Markus Matzel/Getty Images)

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