Blaxit is a social movement that promotes the repatriation of black people from the United States and Europe to Africa. The term now includes all people of African heritage who desire to move to Africa for many reasons, including new economic growth opportunities and cultural reasons. Combined with African countries which are now seeking to gain skilled and educated migrants, a growing movement has been formed, with the Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo declared that 2019 was the "Year of Return" and in accordance with his declaration, he made immigration to Ghana easier for members of African diaspora communities.[1]
Countries such as Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Benin, Ghana, and Zambia now grant citizenship to people of African descent who want to claim nationality.[2] Benin is moving to grant citizenship to anyone who can prove their ancestry to Africa.[3] With new economic growth of the region, African countries are now actively working to gain investment and skilled labour from people of African heritage and emigrated Africans. Ethiopia Central bank governor Mamo Mihretu has publicly called upon the Ethiopian diaspora to get involved in the new opportunities created by the ongoing economic reforms in Ethiopia to benefit themselves and their homeland.[4]
With notable people of African heritage such as Idris Elba relocating to Africa to create ‘Zollywood’,[5]Akon creating his own city in Senegal called ‘Akon City’,[6] and Ludacris obtaining Gabonese citizenship,[7] the movement is gaining new investment with the view to making Africa a thriving continent.
The term Blaxit was coined in the wake of Brexit by the academic, journalist, and human rights consultant Dr. Ulysses Burley III. The term combines Black and Exit to form Blaxit in the same manner that Brexit describes the British Exit from the European Union.[8][9][10][11][12][13]
History
The nation of Liberia was formed in response to the racism which emancipated Black Americans were subjected to in the 1820s.[1] Historian Kevin K. Gaines said around 15,000 emancipated and freeborn American Blacks emigrated between the 1820s and the Civil War period and beyond.[1] Other Black Americans emigrated to Canada, which had been a "beacon of freedom" for Black Americans from the time of the Revolutionary War (see: Black Loyalists), with hundreds of fugitive enslaved people emigrating by 1830 and more emigrating after the 1850 passage of the Fugitive Slave Act.[1] Prominent abolitionist Mary Ann Shadd emigrated to Canada and encouraged other African Americans to emigrate.[1]
African Renaissance Monument
In the early 1900s, many Black actors, artists and writers emigrated to Europe, in an attempt to pursue opportunities which did not exist in the US.[1]Ira Aldridge pursued his acting career in Europe because he had a limited number of opportunities in the US.[1]
Pan-Africanism movement, starting in 1897, grew in the 1950s postcolonial world as a movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between the diasporas of African ancestry. Pan-African thought influenced the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union) in 1963. One of the biggest goals that the African Union has set for the continent in the 21st century is improving long-term economic growth. Major steps have been taken to address this issue particularly with the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
In 2019, the Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo declared that 2019 was the "Year of Return" and in accordance with his declaration, he made immigration to Ghana easier for members of African diaspora communities.[1] In June 2020, Ghana Minister of Tourism Barbara Oteng Gyasi encouraged Black Americans to emigrate, saying "Africa is waiting for you".[1]
Sierra Leone has established a path to citizenship for members of African diaspora communities. With the aid of DNA tests, this path to citizenship allows people with African heritage to relocate to Africa. Geneticist Rick Kittles and Gina Page are helping families put together missing pieces of their heritage through African Ancestry, helping more than one million descendants of slaves unravel the mysteries of their African heritage.[14]
African-American Ancestry Visualized
Benin lawmakers are evaluating a proposal to grant citizenship by descent to descendants of Africans across the globe. To obtain Beninese citizenship, applicants would be required to provide evidence of their Afro-descendant heritage by official documents, verified testimonies, or DNA testing. Qualified individuals would be issued a three-year Beninese passport as the initial step in the recognition process, granting visa-free access to 63 destinations worldwide.[15]
Ghana made history in November 2024 as it granted citizenship to 524 people, many being from the USA.[16] With Donald Trump winning a second term as President of the US in 2024, there is now a growing movement of Black Americans looking to relocate to Africa due to changing attitudes in America, and to benefit from the growing new economic opportunities of Africa.[17]
Ghana has become the 5th African country to implement visa-free travel for Africans. President Nana Akufo-Addo granted executive approval for a comprehensive visa-free travel policy on Wednesday, December 18, 2024. The policy, set to take effect in early 2025, will make Ghana the fifth African country to open its borders to all holders of African passports thus ensuring regional integration. The program is a 10-year initiative launched by the Ghanaian government to boost tourism, encourage the return of Africans and Ghanaians living abroad, and strengthen economic ties with the diaspora.[18]
In 2024 Africa's tourism has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, the continent saw a 7% increase in arrivals in 2024 compared to 2019.[19] The operational phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area has launched at a ceremony included “a roll call of honour” with the 27 countries that had ratified the instruments of the AfCFTA.[20]
American music icon Stevie Wonder has been granted Ghanaian citizenship [21] on a visit to Accra, Ghana's capital, in May 2024. The country's president, Nana Akufo-Addo, praised his skills and links to Africa. "By conferring Ghanaian citizenship to him, we not only recognise his immense talent and achievements, but also acknowledge his deep connection to the African continent". At least 1,500 Black Americans have moved to Ghana since 2019.[22]
Reasons
USA Today said "Black Americans, like expatriates of all races and ethnicities, leave the USA temporarily or permanently for different reasons: in search of a better quality of life, for work opportunities, to marry or retire abroad, for tax reasons, for adventure."[10] Kristen West Savali, writing for Essence in January 2020, compared Blaxit to the Great Migration, saying, "it has become increasingly clear that there is no corner of the United States where it is safe to be black."[12]
Academic Okunini Ọbádélé Kambon moved to Ghana after he was arrested in Chicago.[10] He is involved in a Ghanaian program that encourages descendants of Africans to emigrate.[23] Businesswoman Lakeshia Ford moved to Ghana after a yearlong study abroad there; she says in Ghana "I don't have to think of myself as a black woman...here I am just a woman."[10]
Tiffanie Drayton, whose family moved from Trinidad and Tobago to the US when she was four, moved back to Trinidad and Tobago in 2013, and she is currently writing a book, Black American Refugee, about Blaxit.[10][1] Drayton said driving her children around the block to get them to sleep in Trinidad and Tobago differed significantly from the same experience in the United States: "In America, your hands are shaking. You're worried about what to say. You're worried about whether you have the right ID. You're just so worried all the time."[10]
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