There is a YouTube series with a beautiful spirited proper sista Vanessa Kanbi walking around talking about how great Ghana is as a destination for ex-pats. We all know Ghana has been promoting a coming home campaign asking African-Africans to repatriate and move back to Ghana and build Ghana up. The YouTube video is slick with drone footage, chilled stock music tracks and Ronin DSLR sweeps, and a modest proper sista that you don’t see in America anymore. But is Ghana really a place ADOS should consider as an ex-pat destination?

Watching the video, I saw/heard a lot of sizzle but the video is not talking about the steak. This “sizzling” should be a red flag for anybody why you are not getting a balanced picture. Folks showing you only this cute side of Ghana and try to make things look all good and got your head thinking this Ghana is an idyllic place you want to move to in order to get away from where you are now.

Let’s Talk About the “I Want to Move to Japan” Thing

This reminds me of the “weebs” who talk about moving to Japan and all they see are these YouTube videos of the JET program, anime, and so-called “free” abandoned wooden Japanese houses. Then when these weebs get to Japan, they find out the reality of Japanese culture. Japan Society is a mass conformist, social isolation that will leave feeling like you have no friends and no one acknowledge your existence even on the busy streets.

The funny part – weebs be wanting a Japanese girlfriend thinking Japanese women don’t like sex or won’t cheat on him – lol when the truth hits, it hurts. Japanese women be moving in silence and when she starts telling a weeb how she cheated on that weeb over and over, she talking all Japanese crazy and cross-eyed and laughing maniacally about how she did it behind that weeb back–breaking a weeb fragile heart into a million pieces. They don’t show that in the videos, do they? All that nasty perverted Japanese anime and manga books and this dumb weeb think Japanese women don’t like sex.  

Then they say Japanese culture is nice and walk around in the evening and nighttime - super drunk and chugging, talking crazy, little girls selling their bodies with pimps out in open, singing Michael Jackson at karaoke all messed up, vomiting all on the ground and have to be picked up and carried down the street by fellow salarymen – they don’t show that on YouTube, do they? Then you find out Japanese jobs don’t pay – Black folks in Japanese English Teachers or JET bragging but not revealing to you they making only $20k – 30k salary, that’s Amazon warehouse wages here in America.

See people like to sell you the sizzle about ex-pat destinations but don’t talk about the actual steak being served. Instead of being an ex-pat moving to a destination, look instead at being a global citizen.

The Real Global Citizen Strategy

In modern times, you don’t focus on moving to one country like relocating to Ghana, instead you focus on a global citizenship model. In a global citizenship model, you focus on strategically positioning yourself for global options.

Have multiple residences. You have places to stay around the world which can be properties that you rent out as income when you are away. The goal is to have places you can do business around the world or getaway places to be away from everybody like an island location.

Have multiple HQs. These are places you set up business locations where you are licensed to do business in that region such as the EU, China, Latin America, and the USA. Most people go with the Cayman Islands and Ireland for business tax havens and global banking options.

Have multiple bank accounts and assets. This is having foreign currency banked in a foreign bank. In addition, having gold and bitcoin stored and vaulted for access. This gives flexibility so you can move to a location and move your money where the FX rate gives you better spending power. Also, you have funds accessible to you when you travel instead of having to explain why you moving money while in transit.

Have multiple passports. This is only useful if you want to have the benefits of another country like Japan that has the most visa-free travel to get you places. Other than that, the American passport is excellent.

Overall, your real strategy is to be a global citizen where you can move about the world as you need to and have strategies to make sure you are not held back by one country or another. This is what the rich do having second residences in the Swiss Alps or French Riveria and stuff. This is how you should be moving.

The Idyllic - Living in Feelings

Let’s talk idyllic – most of the things that are sold to us about moving to Ghana as a sizzle are manipulative to tap into our desires and frustrations.

African Diaspora Utopia. We believe there is this “Wakanda” or melting pot of cool brothas and sistas from around the Diaspora that want to return to the motherland. We want to be around our black brothas, our beautiful soul sistas. We can start creating a Black ecosystem and start building great things like an Akon smart city or a tech hub center and one of the finest medical research facilities in Africa. Notice the use of the word “want”, “can” and “believe” – those are the words being used to describe this whole movement – sizzle.

Free of White Privilege. One of the things people say a lot of they don’t feel America treats them right and they want to run to somewhere other than American racism or Western racism. Anecdotal statements such as moving to Africa and feel like a weight of racism has been lifted and stuff like that.  You hear people say this as an intangible benefit of moving to Africa to “return home” when they were actually born in the county hospital back in Ohio.

Expat Quality of Life. We are being sold that Ghana is accommodating us to provide talent and skills as a Black and proud member of the Diaspora. As ex-pats, we will build together a new paradigm of Blackness bringing the best of our cultures and backgrounds to help contribute and grow a new caliber of people and communities. We will find ourselves around friendly Ghana people and other Black ex-pats from around the world and share our stories and collaborate on living in peace with each other.

One of the problems we Black people have around the world is we tend to “live in our feelings” being emotionally centered. A lot of our people think this is ok or cute, but it isn’t. It allows us to be manipulated and people telling us what we want to hear and lecture to us that we need to feel this about something to “get over it” or “go on with it.” The worst example is our sistas – she wants a brotha to make her “feel some kind of way” instead of actually qualifying if the brotha is actually stable and solid as a man who can stand up for his wife and family with honor, nah – she needs to “be in her feelings” about a brotha where he needs to be saying the right words and wearing the right clothes. That’s a problem with our people.

The video above is doing exactly what I describe, it’s selling the sizzle and our people only hear that and it sounds good and jumping before even knowing all about the steak itself. If you going to make a major move on relocating somewhere, especially overseas, you better look at the real picture and the reality on the ground.

The Reality – Ghana is Weak

The reality is Ghana or Africa, in general, is not the best option for ADOS – not even a long shot. In fact, moving to Ghana would be a mistake and a shallow-thinking mistake as well.  ADOS are first-world people and have first-world respect all around the world. We got too much global leverage, too much advantage, and Ghana would be a step down after we made it this far as a people with so much blood, sweat, and tears to make it as American Descendants of Slavery.

Ghana Citizenship Passport. The Ghana passport is weak and has visa-free travel to mostly unstable countries I would never set foot in. There is no advantage, no tax-benefit to being an ADOS dual-citizenship with Ghana unless someone wants the speaking point as some Pan-Afro gathering of Black folks talking about nothing special. Nothing beats a good old fashion American passport and your global citizenship strategy should only pursue countries with passports that accentuate your American one that is already good as it is.

Safety and Security. Got to love short-term thinking and avoiding the big picture. Let’s say ADOS moves to Ghana and builds up this Pan-African Diaspora and Akon smart city, what do you think going to happen next? What do you think will happen next if you fix up your home in the hood and all the other houses on the block look like crap? Someone going to try coming to your house unwelcomed, so you know what’s going to happen in Ghana. How many movies does someone builds a nice compound and invaders show up? How are you going to protect yourself? Do you trust the Ghana local government and locales to defend you as ADOS in their homeland? Where is your safety and security really at?

Health and Wellness. Do you have access to world-class hospitals or do you have to be life-flighted to Brussels, Belgium? Do you think just going jogging, eating veggies and raw organics will be the solution to health and wellness after you move to Ghana? Insurance is one thing but the actual care and preventive medicine is another. There is little world-class first-rate healthcare anywhere in Africa, including Ghana. Everything sounds good until you get an infection from that rusty metal cut and the wound starts to look ugly.

The Local Yokes. What do the locales really offer and care about you as an ADOS on their land? They will tell you one thing, smile in your face but the minute you turn your back, this is their homeland and you are a visitor or outsider, they will let you know that once you start trying to push the limits of trying to make progress/changes as an outsider. Whatever you thought you were going to try to do, the local yokels will remind you that you have to go through them and seek their approval, validation, and acceptance – so you were not as free as you thought you were, huh?

But there is a bigger question to ADOS talking about moving to Ghana – what do you really have to offer them? Did you ever ask yourself that question and the keyword is “really”, remember that, homey. What are you going to do as ADOS, go over there and be a work-from-home digital content creator feeling free from White Supremacy? But you talking everything about yourself like a narcissist about going to Ghana and haven’t asked one time, what Ghana really wants out of you.

What they really want from you is to collect taxes and fees from you by using your powerful American dollars to supplement their undervalued currency. Now ask yourself – let’s say you want to build a data center in Ghana, where are you going to get the materials and infrastructure? You have to get that from China – Ghana going to go to China themselves, they not going to let you do global trade on that grand scale as an ADOS in their country. What I’m trying to explain, you don’t have anything real to offer them but some weak soft skills local Ghanaians can learn themselves by watching YouTube instruction videos.

Unless you living in your feelings, Ghana is not even a serious thought to consider for ADOS. My thought is the only ones smiling about moving to Ghana as ADOS are fringed folks in our community who got some level of mental problems or have a criminal, sexual predator or toxic background they want to run from American persecution. That’s no different than the Middle East/Asians who desired to open up a corner store or Black hair supply store in the ghetto Black areas – they didn’t realize what they were getting into either, did they?

ADOS Got Better Global Expat Options

First of all, ADOS doesn’t have to run and get away from nowhere. America is the best place on this planet for Black people period. If you are confused about why millions and millions of Black people around the world trying to get to the USA and you as an ADOS want to run to Ghana, you got some deeper personal problems you running away from instead of confronting and Ghana is not going to save you.

But if you going to go the global citizenship route, I will tell you the best places for ADOS but this YouTube video already showed exactly where ADOS people should consider:

These are the same countries I would recommend – Brazil, Nicaragua, Mexico, Colombia but I would put Lithuania on the list as well. I would also add China and Malaysia. Let me explain something you should have a pulse on as ADOS in a global economy. All of the biggest opportunity is going to be in Latin America this decade and next. We are tired of the big time zone difference outsourcing to Asia and the time it takes for products to come from Asia. Latin America shares the same time zone and we can truck it directly to America or ship quickly to both east coast and west coast ports through the Panama Canal. Latin American economies and cities are already developed or emerging. I would be looking at getting land in Brazil or Colombia or Panama and especially as a single Black man.

The South Asian market has the maturity and numbers as a customer base and they respect ADOS culture, just as well as Korea and Japan. That’s a multi-billion-dollar consumer base and folks over here are still stuck on the failed Blackity-Black stuff.  You as ADOS can be working on a global distribution deal with JD Sports which carries far more game than being in some $150k house in Ghana talking about you glad to be around Black people in Africa and it makes you feel good, living in your feelings.

Every time they talk about moving to Africa, it is spoken as “whataboutism” – what if, imagine if, only if – nah, you chase the global power and focus on strategic global locations and leverage the influence and clout that ADOS brings to the landscape and build yourself off the shoulders of your ancestors and go big – this is not the time to be living in your feelings and let someone dupe you into moving into Africa and they moving from Africa to Dallas and taking over your ADOS community and claiming to be Dallas Cowboys fans, better think smarter than that.