Many of the efforts toward unity among our people must focus on how well the variety of organizers and activists in our community work together. The main idea of many Pan Afrikan Coalition groups is to look at the various areas where we do our work in terms of how one area affects what we must do in another, to establish how the different areas of activist activity (such as culture, electoral politics, media, law, international advocacy, science, health, tech, education, spirituality, prison outreach, economics, revolutionary activism, etc.) can actually function in the “real world” as opposed to in theory, and who among our community’s activists and leaders are working to help coordinate these functional areas to build unity. Our conviction is that the different areas in which we operate cannot be looked at in isolation, and that they all impact each other in ways that we might not realize at first. Realizing this is an important step in developing a “grand strategy” for how those different areas of activity will actually work together toward the uplift of our community.
In the meantime, things happen on a regular, dare I say daily basis to impact the work we do and to pile more struggle and important work on our plate. Recent developments in the United States with regard to immigration and the imposition of police state-style tactics from the current US administration have led many of us to look outside the United States as places we might go to live. Now, some of those options may be threatened by the actions of governments around the world in response to the isolationism of the US, particularly in this case, in Afrika.
As activists, organizers and leaders of Global Pan Afrikanist organizations, among the issues I have always assumed to be important to all (or most) of us is that of the ability of Afrikans of the Historic Diaspora (“Afrikan Americans” and Afrikan Descendants living around the world outside the Mother Continent) to “get away from Amerikkka”, repatriate to Afrika and establish dual, or even exclusive, citizenship in an Afrikan country.
An example that may have been overlooked for some time has involved the recent development of the Alliance des Etats du Sahel (AES), or the Alliance of Sahel States in English. The Trump administration’s recent decision to deny entry into the United States to those in possession of a passport from Burkina Faso, along with what apparently were numerous attempts on the life of Burkina Faso’s president, Captain Ibrahim Traore, led to the reciprocal denial of passport holders from the United States from entering Burkina Faso. I wonder whether or not the current anti-immigrant fervor that is trying to sweep the US is leading to similar, retaliatory or even “copycat” actions from another Afrikan nation to which many of us feel a strong kinship.
One of the most prominent and popular locations to which we might want to repatriate is Ghana, which has proposed, and even implemented, numerous programs over the years to facilitate the repatriation and ultimate citizenship of members of the Historic Diaspora, from former Ghanaian President John Kufuor’s earlier entreaties, to the Ghana Nkwanta Project, to the One Africa movement, to the efforts of Dr. Maulana Maulana, to the settlement of several villages in Ghana between Accra and Cape Coast that have been largely settled by members of the Historic Diaspora over the last several years.
This and similar arrangements might have just become more complicated, and might even be threatened altogether, by the most recent decision that has been announced by the Republic of Ghana.
The Ghanaian government has announced the “Temporary Suspension of Ghanaian Citizenship Application Process for Historical Diasporans” and the imposition of new standards that must be met to qualify for Ghanaian citizenship, which might even impact upon the ability to establish residency in Ghana even without the granting of official citizenship. Apparently, there was also an “emergency town hall meeting” held in Ghana on the morning of February 1 about this issue.
The official policy, announced by the Republic of Ghana on February 1, was briefly outlined in the document “Temporary Suspension of Ghanaian Citizenship Application Process for Historical Diasporans” (in the form of a PNG image) from the Diasporan Affairs Office of the President, Republic of Ghana.
This was answered in a Press Release (in the form of a PDF document) from Nana Abena Grace James, Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) Africa Facilitator (Tanzania), detailing the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus’s objection to and rejection of the Ghanaian Government’s proposed new standards for citizenship, which apparently include a two-year residency period, a DNA test (the standards of which are not explained) and a $2500 fee. That response is viewable here.
I received Nana Abena James’s email about this later that day, February 1, 2026, along with the above documents. She is seeking support from a variety of global Pan Afrikan Diaspora organizations for the attached Press Release, as the new standards, despite the claimed desire to “further streamline and enhance the overall experience” and make it “even more accessible, efficient, and user-friendly for our brothers and sisters across the diaspora”, would seem to only make an already-difficult process of establishing dual citizenship for Afrikan Diasporans in Ghana even more difficult.
How many of us are aware of these new “standards” being imposed by the Ghanaian government?
What impact, if any, might these new “standards” have on current repatriation efforts, specifically the settlement of the Historic Diaspora in Ghana?
Is this new policy from the Republic of Ghana motivated by increased American xenophobia and isolationism (whether a retaliatory move against anti-immigrant sentiment in the US or some twisted “copycat” policy because, well, that’s how things are done now) or by some fear of unchecked immigration from the US and the greater Historic Diaspora (There are, after all, over 85 million Afrikan Descendants in Brazil, 12 million in Colombia and millions more elsewhere in South America, Central America and Europe)?
Would any of the Pan Afrikan organizations that have a concern about this development have an interest in signing on to the Press Release, affixing the applicable organizational logos to the effort, or any other gesture of support?
With the increased authoritarianism sweeping across the United States “courtesy” of the Trump administration and the resulting feelings of alienation among several members of the Pan Afrikan community towards continuing to embrace the prospect of living in the United States, I anticipate that leaving the US and repatriating to Ghana or other Afrikan nations has gained greater consideration from many of us. This will only become more difficult if Ghana, and other Afrikan nations, start to “take the US’s lead” and clamp down on those seeking to emigrate out of the United States.