Ghanaian American

Ghanaian Americans

Boris Kodjoe Kwame Raoul Nazr Mohammed Freddy Adu C. J. Sapong Charlie Peprah Jon Asamoah Joseph Addai Kofi Kingston
Total population
Ghanaian Americans 108,389 (Ghanaian Ancestry. 2011 US Census)[1] 116,807 (Ghanaian-born, 2007-2011) [2]
Regions with significant populations
Atlanta, New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, New Jersey
Languages
English, Akan, Kwa
Religion
Predominantly Christian, irreligion, other minorities.[3]
Related ethnic groups
Ghanaians

Ghanaian Americans are Americans who are of Ghanaian descent or a Ghanaian naturalized citizen of the United States.

History

Early history

The first people to arrive from the region then known as the Gold Coast were brought as slaves. Most of which were Akans originating from Ghana.^[4][5] About 16 percent of the African slaves imported to North America were Akans from Ghana.^[4] several of Ghana's ethnic groups like the Ga people were imported as well and they appear to have an influence on the language of the Gullah people.^[6][7] Because Ghanaian ports were a major routes for European slave traders. Captives from ethnic groups and tribes from all over West Africa were brought there to be to be held and sent to the New World. Most them were imported to South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia.

Typically, the product of wars, many slaves were sold to or captured by Europeans, although Africans like many ancient cultures had a form of slavery in their society. It was much different from American chattel slavery.^[8] It is believed that of the 11 million Ghanians that were exported as slaves, only about 500,000 to have ended up in the United States (most went to Latin America and the Caribbean),.^[9] The likelihood of an African-American or any Black person from the diaspora having some Ghanian ancestry is relatively high.^{[citation needed]}

Recent Immigration

Ghanians began arriving in the United States en masse during the 1950s and 1960s amid the Civil Rights and anti-Imperialism era. In 1957, Ghana became the first African country to gain independcy from European Colonization. Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah studied at American universities and worked with black American leaders for the rights of Black People worldwide. Notable African American intellectuals and activists such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Malcolm X used early Ghana as a symbol of black achievement. Most of the early immigrants from Ghana who came to the United States were students who came to get a better education and planned on using the education acquired in the United States to better Ghana.^[10] However, many Ghanians that migrated in the 1980s and 1990s, came to get business opportunities. In difficult economic times the number of Ghanians who emigrated to the United States was small. However, when these economic problems were paralyzed, they built resources for their emigration to the United States.^[10]

Demography

Education and languages

African immigrants to the U.S. are among the most educated groups in the United States. Some 48.9 percent of all African immigrants hold a college diploma. This is more than double the rate of native-born white Americans, and nearly four times the rate of native-born African Americans.^[12]

Ghanaian immigrants arrive with high educational statistics and this is attributable to Ghana's english speaking school system.^[13] Ghanians are well represented in top universities across the United States and schools such as Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford University have groups specifically devoted to Ghanaian students, in addition to general African student associations.^[13]

Languages

The Ghanaian Americans speak English, and often also speaking Akan and Kwa.^[10] The Ghanians have an easier time adapting to life in the United States than other immigrants because their homeland of Ghana has the English language as the official language and is spoken by the majority of Ghana's population.^[10]

Return to roots: African Americans in Ghana

As reported by the journalist Lydia Polgreen in a New York Times article, the fact that Ghanaian slave exports to the Americas was so important between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, make that Ghana currently does try to attract the attention of African slave descendants from the Americas in order that they are established here, and so that they turn the country into the new home to many descendants of the Ghanaian diaspora -though they only are partially descent of Ghanaian -, for they return to the country. So, according reported Valerie Papaya Mann, president of the African American Association of Ghana, now thousands of African-Americans already live in Ghana, at least part of the year. To encourage migration or, at least, the journey of the descendants of slaves from the Americas, Ghana decided, in 2005, offer a special visa to those people and provide Ghanaian passports to them.^[9]

Notable Ghanaian Americans

See also

• Ghanaians
• Ghana
• African immigrants to the United States

References

External links

• EveryCulture — Ghanaian-Americans

v t e Ghanaian diaspora Australia Canada France Italy Jamaica Surinam United Kingdom United States