Leave America- Africa is open to you, they said. You will be automatically accepted and can rebuild your lives- just pick up and leave for better opportunities; they claim.
“Comments by Ghanaian officials indicate that the Beyond the Return program is
aimed at attracting wealthier African Americans to encourage their investment in Ghana, rather than those who might need financial assistance”
Kwabena Agyare Yeboah, a prominent journalist in Ghana who has written about the Year of the Return, says historically lands belong to family, town or kingdom heads, not the government. "
Ghana does not have enough money nor lands to dash out." he tells USA TODAY.
Land giveaway isn't part of the plan
In response to an inquiry by USA TODAY, Agyemang, whose tourism authority is an agency under the Ministry of Tourism, said the Popular Superstars article regarding purported offers of land and money is "categorically" untrue.
Likewise, Rabbi Kohain Halevi, director of PANAFEST, a cultural and theatrical event that attempts to unite Africans on the continent and in the diaspora around the issues raised by slavery, says he has never heard of any financial incentive being offered to African Americans or any members of the diaspora to return to Ghana.
Halevi, member of the original Year of Return Committee who was recently asked to serve on the Beyond the Return committee tells USA TODAY the only issue involving land that he knows of is one tribal chief who has offered land for free, but requires a registration fee for potential participants.
Goodlet Owusu Ansah, a master’s student in International Business at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and an author on research into hospitality and tourism, explains that "Beyond the Return " a "safe-haven of a sort to entrepreneurial African diaspora while seeking to economically stimulate the Ghanaian economy."
"However, references to commitments in the form of financial gains and land handouts are factually incorrect.
Generally, land ownership is held by the local ethnic groups and as such will be very difficult for government to be engaged in such gestures in the first instance,"
Canada- uncheck, Ghana- uncheck,
Nah. I’m good.