Year of Return

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Wisconsin Public Radio

Prx, Philosophy, Knowledge, Wpr, Ttbook, Wisconsin, Society & Culture

4.7 • 844 Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

2019 was an important year throughout the African diaspora — the 400th year since enslaved Africans first arrived in the United States. In Ghana — once the center of the European slave trade — 2019 was declared "the year of return" and the start of a campaign to encourage descendants of enslaved Africans to re-connect with the land of their ancestors. Thousands of African-Americans made the trip to Ghana — and many have decided to stay. They're fed up with police brutality and systemic racism in the US, ready to build new lives in Africa — and their number is growing.

Original Air Date: September 03, 2022

Interviews In This Hour:

‘This is where I should be’: 1,500 Black Americans make Ghana their new home — The land of your ancestors — Should Africans move to America? — A Black friendship

Guests:

Robert Hanserd, Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman, Prince Marfo, Ato Quayson, Emmanuel Kofi Apraku Bempong

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Transcript

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0:00.0	2019 was an important year for the African diaspora,
0:10.0	the 400th anniversary of the arrival in the U.S. of the first enslaved Africans.
0:16.0	Most were brought from Ghana, and in 2019, the Ghana
0:20.0	the Ghanaian government announced the year of return,
0:22.2	a campaign to encourage descendants of enslaved Africans to visit and reconnect. Since then,
0:28.9	something like a million African Americans have made the trip, and many have decided to stay.
0:34.4	They're fed up with America, with police brutality and entrenched racism, and they're
0:39.8	ready to build new lives in the homeland that was stolen from their ancestors. I'm Anne Strange
0:46.0	Champs. Today, onto the best of our knowledge, coming home to Ghana.
0:58.2	Wisconsin Public Radio.
1:07.0	As to the best of our knowledge, I'm And Strange Champs. Today's show begins with a reveal and a conversation between two friends.
1:22.4	So, Robert, do you want to be visual or do you want to shut it off?
1:27.9	No, we can leave mine on them.
1:29.2	I'm cool.
1:29.7	As long as that's, you know, whatever.
1:31.5	You don't mind.
1:33.9	Charles Monroe Kane is our producer and Robert Hansard is his friend.
1:38.4	So I had this idea of you just saying, hey, my name is Robert Hansard, and you say what you want to say are...
1:43.8	It's pretty personal, and I don't want to Hansard, and you say what you want to say are, it's pretty
1:44.4	personal, and I don't want to either talk or interrupt you until you're like done. Does that
1:49.9	makes sense? Yes. Robert's a professor of history at Columbia College Chicago. He's the author
1:58.1	of identity, spirit, and freedom in the Atlantic world, the Gold Coast,
	...

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