From the BBC World Service, this is the documentary, the home of original storytelling.

I'm Hannah Gelbart. I'm the host of the What in the World podcast.

And on this bonus episode, we're talking about a campaign by Ghana to encourage African diaspora to move back to the continent.

And we're hearing from people who made the move to find out if the reality has lived up to their expectations.

People coming here, a lot of people are marketed to

and they're answering that call.

And then there are others who are led to come here.

They understand that there is something in their life's journey

that is in this country. For a lot of diaspora returnees, it isn't always like, you know,

just being embraced in the way that maybe you thought.

2019 marked 400 years since the first documented African slaves were taken to America.

Many of them were taken from Ghana.

And to commemorate this, Ghana's president at the time Nana Akufu Addo launched the year of

return. It was a tourism campaign aimed at encouraging people with African routes to visit

the country and even potentially to settle down.

Now, this idea wasn't entirely new. For decades, Ghana's offered citizenship to the African diaspora,

and that builds on ideas of pan-Africanism, a movement to create a global and united African diaspora.

In fact, the founding leader of the country, Kwame and Krumah, even described

Ghana as the Black Mecca. And the year of return campaign was incredibly successful.

Tens of thousands of people from North America, the Caribbean and beyond all packed their bags

for Ghana. Some came to build businesses, others came for a holiday. So while we were in Accra,

we wanted to hear from people who moved there to find out if the reality has lived up to their

...