Professor Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon, Professor of African Studies at the University of Ghana and Chair of Open Door Dialogues, has challenged Ghana’s citizenship requirements for members of the historic African diaspora, warning that the country risks losing ground to other countries in attracting people seeking permanent resettlement.
Professor Kambon criticised the financial and administrative hurdles confronting applicants, urging Ghana to align its policies with the principle that “diaspora returnees have a right to come home.” The UG scholar contended that repatriation must extend beyond tourism and financial remittances to encompass permanent settlement, skills transfer and meaningful participation in national development.
“Benin is moving forward. Recently, after ten years of reparative citizenship, Ghana has decided to move towards extractive citizenship, requiring applicants to pay GH₵25,000, undergo a DNA test, submit the results within one week and meet several other requirements. All these hoops and hurdles contradict the spirit of President Mahama’s statement.”
Professor Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon
Professor Kambon recalled that President John Dramani Mahama, in an address to Parliament in Jamaica on August 4, 2026, affirmed the right to repatriation, stating, “those of the historic diaspora, it’s not charity, it’s not a gift; they have a right to repatriation.”
However, Professor Kambon questioned the apparent contradiction between the President’s position and the requirements applicants must satisfy, arguing that the current process risks undermining the welcoming message Ghana seeks to project.
Referencing Benin’s approach, Ɔbenfo Kambon highlighted its $100 administrative fee as an alternative that places less financial pressure on prospective returnees. He warned that Ghana must reconsider its approach if it intends to remain competitive in attracting diaspora communities beyond symbolic visits.
“Come home, stay home, build home,” he declared, identifying the theme of the Open Door Dialogues as a call to make permanent settlement central to the repatriation agenda. Moreover, the African Studies professor acknowledged Ghana’s achievements in opening citizenship pathways, recalling that 34 diaspora members received citizenship in 2016, followed by 126 in 2019.
He also referenced figures cited during the conversation indicating that 674 people received citizenship beyond the Year of Return, alongside an estimate that 1,500 African-Americans relocated to Ghana between 2017 and 2023, although he suggested the actual number could be higher.
Nevertheless, Professor Kambon cautioned that attracting visitors and prominent personalities would not, by itself, determine the success of diaspora engagement. The decisive test should be whether returnees could settle, build livelihoods and genuinely make Ghana their home.
He also recognised endorsements of the Decade of African Diaspora by the Ministry of Tourism, the Ghana Tourism Development Company and the Office of the President’s Diaspora Affairs. Ultimately, the UG scholar called for policies that translate these commitments into accessible citizenship pathways, sustainable settlement and opportunities for diaspora communities to contribute their expertise to Ghana’s development.
African Repatriation as a Path to Ancestral Reconnection
Moving from the question of citizenship requirements to the broader purpose of repatriation, Professor Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon, Professor of African Studies at the University of Ghana and Chair of Open Door Dialogues, presented repatriation as a “form of self-directed reparations.”
He argues that descendants of Africans forcibly taken into slavery must have the opportunity to return, reconnect with their ancestral communities and rebuild relationships severed by enslavement.
“The damage caused by our being kidnapped against our will is often overlooked. Today, the person that comes back is no longer considered African, right?”
Professor Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon
Professor Kambon distinguished this approach from reparations understood exclusively as financial compensation, positing that Africans and the diaspora can pursue reconnection without waiting for external institutions to approve or finance their return. He nevertheless clarified that this emphasis on repatriation does not absolve those responsible for historical atrocities or eliminate the separate question of accountability.
The African Studies Professor challenged narratives that reduce the transatlantic slave trade to the claim that Africans sold other Africans, arguing that such accounts often obscure the experiences of those whose relatives were forcibly removed from their communities. He emphasised that the defining feature of enslavement is the absence of consent, a reality that must be central to any meaningful discussion of repair.
Illustrating the enduring consequences of separation, Ɔbenfo Kambon recounted an encounter at a funeral, where a traditional ruler from the Techiman area sought help tracing relatives descended from an aunt who accompanied a white man to the coast and never returned. The family preserved the oral history across generations in the hope of eventual reunion.
For Professor Kambon, such accounts demonstrate that repatriation can restore family connections and ancestral belonging, making it an immediate avenue for self-directed reparations. He insisted that this process should complement, not replace, efforts to establish responsibility for the crimes committed during enslavement.
Turning to accountability, the UG scholar expressed a preference for “retribution” explaining that the debt incurred through enslavement could not be adequately understood through monetary calculations alone.
“If the debt was incurred in a particular currency, the repayment needs to come in that same currency,” he posited, presenting his position on the relationship between historical wrongdoing and appropriate forms of accountability.
Furthermore, Professor Kambon proposed tracing the financial beneficiaries of enslavement, including banks, insurance companies, shipping businesses and plantation owners. He contended that pursuing accountability requires the political will and institutional infrastructure to identify those who profited and establish mechanisms for demanding restitution.
The scholar also underscored the importance of sustained dialogue between Africans on the continent and diaspora returnees, warning that misunderstandings over employment, resources and belonging could undermine reintegration.
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