African Nations Embrace African-American Celebrities as They Seek Citizenship

Sat Feb 07 2026 06:21:16 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

A growing trend sees high-profile African-American stars obtaining citizenship in African countries, fostering a renewed connection to their ancestral roots while also aiming to boost tourism and cultural exchange.

In recent years, several African-American celebrities, including Ciara, Samuel L Jackson, and Stevie Wonder, have been granted citizenship in various African countries like Ghana and Benin. This trend reflects a historical bond and growing interest among the diaspora to reconnect with their ancestral roots. Governments are promoting this initiative to enhance tourism and soft power influence, despite some criticism about accessibility for local citizens. The trend represents both personal reconnection and economic potential for African nations.

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.

Good, who has featured in films like Think Like A Man and Saw V, and her husband Majors, known for Creed and Marvel flick Ant-Man and the Wasp, became citizens after DNA testing traced their ancestry to Guinea.

This recognition goes beyond titles, it is a homecoming and a reconnection to our Afrodescendant roots, said Good.

Messaging from the various African governments has echoed this sentiment.

In conferring Ghanaian citizenship upon Stevie Wonder, former president Nana Akufo-Addo said at Wonder's 2024 ceremony, we not only extend our warmest embrace to a beloved son of Africa but also reaffirm our belief in the enduring spirit of pan-Africanism and the global African family.

Ghana has long promoted its pan-African credentials - for a decade anyone whose ancestors came from Africa have been entitled to Ghanaian nationality, a policy that arguably inspired Benin to launch a similar scheme.

Ghana also launched the year of return in 2019, a buzzy initiative encouraging Africans in the diaspora to relocate there.

More than 1,000 African-Americans have done so in the past decade, according to Dr Erieka Bennet, ambassador for the Diaspora African Forum, which helps people relocate to Ghana.

It is not only about romanticism, Marie-Roger Biloa, a Cameroonian journalist with a focus on West Africa, tells the BBC.

It's all very much about how can we tap into the potential they have, the Americans.

Tourism is an obvious motivator. Governments hope that social media posts from the stars will encourage other black Americans, a large group with a growing economic power, to visit and inject money into their countries.

Positive publicity from stars like Ciara may also encourage diasporans to invest or buy property in Benin, as they have been doing in Ghana since the year of return.

Soft power is also an important factor - by promoting their culture and building a robust network around the world, countries like Benin, Guinea, Gabon and Ghana stand to gain global influence.

In this mission, celebrity citizens act as ambassadors, Francis Kpatindé, a Beninois lecturer at France's Sciences Po University, tells the BBC.

However, many people from the countries involved recognise the economic and political benefits of giving citizenship to black American celebrities, but others are more critical.

There is an underlying feeling that the stars are bypassing what can be, for those born in the countries, a cumbersome and costly process to get passports.

The celebrity ambassadors are a way for us to be on the record, to be on-screen. Now it's working. You can go to the social networks. You see Benin everywhere, Kpatindé says.

Following the foreign minister's announcement, Patrick Boamah, a member of the Ghanaian parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, told local broadcaster Channel One that the content creator must follow the required legal procedures to get a passport, although the authorities may waive certain steps for him.

Despite some tensions, the trend reflects a significant cultural exchange and the potential for economic impact through tourism and property investment, creating a new narrative for many African nations in the global arena.