The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has urge all Africans to embrace people of African descent and connect with the African Diaspora.

The Vice President made this passionate appeal on Friday at a High Level Diasporan Forum organized by the UNFPA in Accra.

Dr. Bawumia stressed on the unbreakable link between Africa and its descendants, their potential contributions to the development of the African continent, and the need to continue to open doors for them back to their roots.

“Afro-descendants are Africans, no matter where they come from. As long as you are a Blackman or black woman, you are an African regardless of your nationality” Dr. Bawumia said, adding that to emphasise the representative relevance of Afro-descendants to Africa on a global scale, the African Union has taken a decision to recognize and regard Africans in the Diaspora as the “sixth region” of Africa.

“To this end, people of African Descent living outside the continent irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union make up the 6th Region of Africa – North, West, East, Central, South and the Diaspora.”

Dr Bawumia also called on Africans to extend hospitality to their brothers in the Diaspora, Dr. Bawumia highlighted deep-seated racial discrimination Afro-descendants continue to face in their respective countries of birth, and commended initiatives by bold Diasporans, who resist and speak out against such discriminations.

“By virtue of the very chequered and multi-layered history involving slavery, colonialism, fleeing from oppressive conditions, our forefathers were forced out of the motherland. Their descendants, some of whom have returned today have evolved into a heterogeneous, albeit recognisable, group of people with a unique cultural history and heritage.”

“The very context for their existence has exposed this group of Africans to being intimately acquainted with the effects of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. People of African descent have a story only they can tell and should not be side-lined in discussions on the advancement of the protection of rights and demanding for equity.”

“These deep-seated biases still prevail in the world we live in, with Afro-descendants struggling to find a sense of belonging in a land where they were born, but which rejects them at every turn. Please join me while I salute every single Afro-descendant who bravely challenges the order of the day by continuing to resist all forms of racial discrimination.”

He added Ghana has played in promoting relationship between Africa and Africans in the Diaspora.

“In 2019, the Government of Ghana set up an initiative for Africans living in the diaspora dubbed the “Year of Return” that brought the global African family to the continent through Ghana as a gateway,” the Vice President noted.

“Subsequently, a ten-year project christened “Beyond the Return: A Decade of African Renaissence” is being implemented by the Government.

“It aimed to promote the recognition and respect for the diversity of the legacy, culture, and contributions of people of African descent to the development of societies, as well as deepen that bond through tourism and trade.”