Hollywood icon Samuel L Jackson is a citizen of Gabon, while singer Ciara is a Beninoise
Although their forefathers were seized from West and Central Africa centuries ago, the bond between African-Americans and their ancestral home has been a lasting one.
For instance, Liberia, Africa’s oldest republic, was founded by freed black American slaves in 1822. After Ghana became independent in 1957, a wave of black intellectuals and artists moved there from the US. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali subsequently paid high-profile visits to Ghana, while Guinea became home to Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael.
This transatlantic connection has ebbed and flowed over time – but in recent years, there has been a real resurgence, helped by the use of DNA tests.
A number of black American celebrities have sought the nationality of African countries – singer Ciara has become a citizen of Benin, rapper Ludacris and film star Samuel L Jackson are officially Gabonese, actors Meagan Good and Jonathan Majors are citizens of Guinea, and musical icon Stevie Wonder has Ghanaian papers.
Just last week, wildly popular content creator IShowSpeed was approved for a Ghanaian passport after stopping in the country on a whirlwind African tour.
The celebs have, in most cases, flown out for elaborate citizenship ceremonies and tours of local beauty spots, all of which have been captured for glossy social media content.
Posting photos of her citizenship ceremony in Guinea, Meagan Good told her 7.8m Instagram followers last month: “This is history in motion”.
