By Lisa Vives <\/p>\n\n\n\n
From W.E.B. Du Bois to Julian Bond to Maya Angelou, Ghana has carried the hopes and dreams of Black Americans who identified with the African continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some turned to Ghana to escape the racism of the United States. Some went to engage with Pan-Africanist and socialist thought under the tutelage of Ghana\u2019s President Kwame Nkrumah and African diasporan political exiles. Du Bois called the continent \u201cthe spiritual frontier of humankind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This month, the Diaspora African Forum and Our Black Truth, a social media platform, fulfilled the dreams of two American centenarians – survivors of the 1929 Tulsa Race Massacre – to connect with their motherland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Now after all these years, I\u2019m so happy to be fulfilling a lifelong dream of going to Africa and I am so pleased that it is to beautiful Ghana,\u201d said Viola Fletcher, 107, known as ‘Mother Fletcher’, who arrived with her brother Hughes Van Ellis, 100, known as ‘Uncle Red’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The siblings are from the district of Greenwood in the Oklahoma city of Tulsa that was devastated in 1921 by a mob of armed white people – a story barely known to white Americans until recently but now the subject of in-depth histories, children\u2019s picture books, and even a graphic novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nadia Adongo Musah of Ghana\u2019s office of diaspora affairs called the visit \u201cone of the biggest historic African diasporans that have come back to us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fletcher and Ellis were accompanied by their grandchildren for the week-long trip as part of a government campaign to attract people of African heritage abroad ‘back home’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The family landed in Ghana’s capital of Accra with beaming smiles, waving from their wheelchairs to airport onlookers cheering ‘welcome home’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s my first time on the continent of Africa and I’m just thrilled to be here,” said Ellis’ daughter, Mama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As they made their way out of the airport, the survivors were given flowers and sashes saying: ‘Beyond the Return’ – in reference to the government campaign launched in 2019, four centuries after the first slave ship landed in what is now the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“My grandparents are extremely excited to be home for the first time on the motherland,” said Fletcher’s grandson, Ike Howard. “If you haven\u2019t visited Africa, this is the time to come.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n