BuzzFeed News spoke to black Americans living in Ghana, France, and Brazil about their connection to the month-long commemoration.
The black American history of emigrating is rich and extensive. From Jamaican-born black nationalist Marcus Garvey's Back to Africa movement in the early 20th century to the trips taken by long-revered black artists and thinkers Josephine Baker and W.E.B. DuBois, these departures have typically been prompted by a desire to escape racial inequality and, in some cases, reconnect to ancestral roots.
A century later, they continue to expatriate, both to countries that have historically received Americans, like Ghana, and to others with large black native populations, such as Brazil.
BuzzFeed News spoke via email to three black Americans currently living in Accra, Ghana; Salvador da Bahia, Brazil; and Paris, France, about what prompted them to move and how they recognize Black History Month as Americans abroad. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Image courtesy of Christa Sanders
Name: Christa Sanders
Profession: Director of an American university
Where did you grow up? Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Where do you live now, and when did you move there? I reside in Accra, and I moved here in August 2004.
Why did you move there? I moved to Ghana because of an extraordinary career opportunity to help develop a study abroad program for a prestigious American university. I had also traveled to Ghana in 1999 with my family, and felt a deep spiritual connection to the country, its people, and culture. I had always dreamt of an opportunity to return. When the opportunity finally presented itself to work in Ghana, I couldn't refuse!
Do you have any memories, positive or negative, of celebrating Black History Month in the U.S.? I have positive memories of celebrating Black history in the U.S. Most of these memories go back as far as my childhood where I can recall having to do presentations in both school and church on different figures in black history that I admired. I can recall being especially drawn to figures such as George Washington Carver, Charles Drew, Dorothy Dandridge and Martin Luther King Jr. I remember feeling great pride as a child in these figures, and in being African American.
Ben King / BuzzFeed News
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