Ghana’s ‘Year Of Return’ Delivers A Bittersweet Buzz As Tourists Push Up Prices
Since September, Effia Afful and her friends have been calling Accra establishments to reserve tables for the Christmas season, trying to beat other fun-seekers to it.
“You have to reserve your tables now because by the time you are ready, there will be no table left,” said the 30-year-old advertising executive.
In recent years, Ghana has become a December hotspot. It began in 2018 with President Nana Akufo-Addo’s call-to-action in Washington DC, urging Black people in the diaspora to visit Africa. The “Year of Return” was launched in 2019 to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first recorded enslaved Africans in the state of Virginia in the US.
Members of his cabinet assured visitors of a warm welcome, with one calling them “Josephs and Josephines who were sold into slavery and have come back home”.
Since then, thousands of people including celebrities such as Chance the Rapper, Dave Chappelle, Erykah Badu and Gabrielle Union have thronged to a country that has long seen itself as home to all Africans. Benin followed in Ghana’s footsteps to launch a similar project.
“Ghana has always been big on tourism,” said David Clay, founder of the Accra-based entertainment and event consultancy Gold River.
“But the number of people coming in December skyrocketed,” he added, “because the communication wasn’t just to come and tour but to come and get in touch with your ancestors.”
This November, 524 settlers were granted citizenship.
“We love Ghana, we love the culture,” said San Diego-born Chaz Kyser, a 45-year-old entrepreneur and speaker, whose relatives were among the cohort. “We like being around Black people all day long and Black people in positions of power.”
The impact has been most evident in entertainment and hospitality: several concerts were announced and videos of people partying until sunrise emerged on social media.
There has also been a rise in vegan restaurants, bars and beach clubs. The popular Nigerian ‘gentleman’s club’ Silver Fox opened an Accra branch staffed with Colombian strippers.
“Even with cocktails, the dynamics have changed to the extent that now, you go to an outlet, the guys are doing infusion with local elements,” said Kojo Aidoo, manager at Front Back, an Accra restaurant and gallery. Some returnees have launched their own ventures. Kyser, who has lived mostly in Ghana since 2016, ran Serenity House Ghana, an event centre with a bed and breakfast wing and a workspace for more than a year.
It employed 13 people, all locals, and according to its owner hosted more than 100 events. But it ran out of funds and shut down in March despite becoming relatively well known in a short time.
“People would call me from Barbados and be like: ‘Oh, I heard about Serenity House,’ said Kyser. “It was gorgeous because I put so much intention and money into it, and so closing it was heartbreaking. But it didn’t make sense to keep putting money into something where I wasn’t going to get a return for a long time.”
However, while outsiders see Akufo-Addo’s call to action as a masterstroke, many within Ghana say it has been a bittersweet experience.
Service providers in particular have inflated their prices and in some cases set them in dollars instead of the Ghanaian cedi, even as the economy dipped. Consequently, the price of everything from braids to apartments has doubled.
“On one hand, you get access to all types of celebrities. You could be sitting in a local bar and Idris Elba is two feet away from you,” said Nigerian-born Clay, who attended university in Kumasi, 125 miles north-west of Accra. “But many activities and their pricing have been centred around the visitors, creating something of a segregation.”
Locals primarily blame the government for inflation, but also African Americans, even though many only come in December to party, then leave. Those who stay behind account for just a small percentage of the influx, which also includes returnee Ghanaians and white tourists.
Many settlers say they love Ghana, despite the challenges of navigating life in a new country, including predatory pricing even in government dealings. Some are buying real estate, some, controversially, to integrate themselves into society.
Kyser, who has relaunched her business to focus on curating events, says a lot of stereotypes trail the foreigners. “People think Black Americans, because we have dollars, can come and make housing prices rise, food rise,” she said. “I think people don’t recognise that there’s a lot of Ghanaians with money.”
She added there were “Black Americans who live here like me who think in terms of cedis [Ghanaian currency], and Black Americans coming for a vacation”.
“The majority of Black Americans who are coming here are middle class and they’re most likely struggling,” she said of those coming here to live.
“They’re coming here because their money will go further and because they want to live in the country of their ancestors.”
These days, some residents now go outside the city to find alternative sources of pleasure.
Afful and her crew have settled for bonding with nature at the Aburi mountains on weekends, “rather than walking into the club and end up spending 3,000-4,000 cedis (£160-£210)”.
And they blame their president: “I don’t think Akufo-Addo was ready when he made that open statement saying people should return home.”
