Ghanaian Government & the Diaspora
The Ghanaian government is aspiring to encourage its people into thinking of Ghana as their homeland again. They are trying to bring former (and descendants of) residents of Africa back. The problem with this is that Ghana isn’t a country that most people would choose to live: “a third of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, life expectancy tops out at 59 and basic services like electricity and water are sometimes scarce.” But despite this, the government is doing all that it can to persuade more people to visit; such as allowing for benefits for the diaspora members and descendants of slaves. It seems however, that the current residents of Ghana aren’t too pleased to have new people arriving, no matter what their reason: “Many African-Americans who visit Africa are unsettled to find that Africans treat them - even refer to them - the same way as white tourists.” Though the government is stepping in to help things like this, it just doesn’t seem like a very welcoming place to visit.
A lot of the people that Ghana is trying to encourage to come back to their country are the descendants of the slaves from the Atlantic Slave Trade. The Atlantic Slave Trade was originally started by the Portuguese until the English pretty much took over. The trade basically treated Africans as if they were things instead of human beings. It was the Europeans’ exploitation of Africans through the Atlantic Ocean during the 14th to 18th century. The point of the triangular trade was so that Africans gained the Europeans’ manufactured goods, the Americas gained slaves for labor on plantations, and the Europeans gained goods from the Americas.
As stated in the article, the Elmina Castle is one of the reminders of the African history in Ghana. “You feel our history here,” said Dianne Mark with her visit to the castle. It was the first trading post built on the west coast of Africa in 1482 and a reminder of the good and bad aspects of...