The Sunday Story: The Diaspora's Troubled African Dream

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🗓️ 25 February 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

In the sleepy town of Asebu, a few miles inland from the Atlantic along Ghana's Cape Coast, a serene 5,000 acre rural settlement is rising out of the palm forests and farmland.

Pan-African Village is envisioned as an idyllic haven for settlers from the African diaspora. It was established in 2019, after a local chief announced that anyone from the diaspora could have plots for free. Hundreds of people, largely from North America and the Caribbean, have accepted the offer and are in the midst of building large homes.

They regard themselves as the first wave of settlers, carving a new life in their ancestral homeland, devoid of racism and repression. But while locals have tentatively welcomed returning diaspora, Ghana is also experiencing some of the worst economic conditions in decades. In Pan-African Village, brewing tensions over ownership and privileged access to the land are threatening to spill over into violence and unravel the promise of this diaspora haven.

This week on The Sunday Story, producer Andrew Mambo speaks with Emmanuel Akinwotu, NPR's West Africa Correspondent, about the complicated relationship between the diaspora settlers and the place they see as their ancestral home.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Sunday story. I'm Andrew Mambo, a producer on the show sitting in this week for Aisha Roscoe.
0:09.0	When I was a young man, I moved to Tanzania for several years to reconnect with my family.
0:14.0	I'm from Canada originally but my father was born in Tanzania and much of my family still lives there.
0:19.0	So today's story really hit home for me.
0:22.0	It begins with another Canadian. My name is Lenval
0:26.3	Ashley Skiers. Skiers was born in Jamaica, but as a young man he he immigrated to Canada, and he lived there for more than 40 years.
0:35.1	It was my home, but I didn't want Canada to be my retirement home.
0:41.6	So in 2019, he cashed in his savings and moved across the Atlantic
0:45.4	to a small coastal town in the West African nation of Ghana. Skiers had found
0:51.6	out that a local chief was giving away land to members of the African diaspora, specifically descendants of the formerly enslaved.
0:58.0	Lots of people jumped at the chance, including Skiers.
1:02.0	I went to the office, I acquired two lots, and I started to build.
1:08.8	It was kind of a wild journey. Skiers says when he arrived at the land land there was nothing, not even a mud road.
1:15.0	Nobody has ever lived there before. It was idle land. It was a forest, but I braved it. You know, I braved it.
1:24.0	Skyrus settlers who've moved to Ghana in the last four years.
1:29.0	Their hope is to make a home on the continent of their ancestors.
1:33.0	I feel welcome and I feel at home and I intend to be here until my time is over.
1:39.2	Today on the Sunday story, the African dias, and the contentious politics of their return.
1:44.5	We'll be right back.
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1:54.0	Stuart McClain, CFO of Brother UK, shares how SAP Concurs Audit and Expense Tool supports their work across multiple offices.
2:04.0	Across Europe, we have a presence in 17 countries, which obviously involves 17 different
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