In 1994, I was living in Chicago down the street from the Hebrew Israelite community. I used to frequent their Original Soul Vegetarian Restaurant. As documented in my book, From Yale to Rastafari: Letters to My Mom 1995-1998, I had just left Yale University the previous year and was seeking my African roots. At this time, there was great excitement over the Fihankra movement. News was being spread that Ghana was giving free land to African Americans! The first step in getting this free land was registering with a group called Fihankra. This is how I first got involved with a serious repatriation to Africa effort. And that’s pretty much where my involvement with Fihankra began and ended. Something didn’t seem right. The more information I got, the more skeptical I became. As a young, gifted black man with absolutely no money, I was looking for an opportunity to go to Africa and serve - lend my youthful energy and education to building Africa. I was only 23 years old and I had no money, no business, no real skills. All I had was a desire to ESCAPE America and the Pan African dream to unite with my people to make the African continent a world power. The more I looked into Fihankra, however, the more I realized this was not a movement to take young people and give them opportunities in Africa. This was a plan to find wealthy black people to invest in a a real estate program. That’s not exactly what I thought of when I heard the words, “Right of Return”. Why did I have to PAY to go back to the place where my ancestors were taken from? How were the vast majority of people who wanted to repatriate going to be able to afford this????
Meanwhile, at the same time, I became more and more involved with the Rastafari movement and learned about the Shashemane Land Grant that Emperor Haile Selassie gave to African Americans through the Ethiopian World Federation (EWF). I would eventually become a very active member of the EWF and traveled to Ethiopia in 2003 where I spent a year there, much of it on the Shashemane Land Grant. There I saw firsthand the problems and issues concerning Repatriation while also consulting with the government of Ethiopia and the African Union to resolve various immigration and citizenship issues.
On the other side of the continent, in Ghana, the Fihankra land grant was experiencing similar problems. Below are firsthand accounts of what happens when ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT is placed before the HUMAN DEVELOPMENT. To avoid this, the Lineage Restoration Movement has a development model based on restoring the ancestral bonds of the families that were separated through the criminal European trans Atlantic trafficking and enslavement of people from the African Continent. The Lineage Restoration Model is based on
1) identifying your paternal and maternal lineage
2) building a relationship with the members of your ancestral lineage across the Atlantic in their homeland - re-learning your ancestral language and culture that was taken during slavery and organizing welcome home rituals in those villages.
3) helping the communities to determine their OWN development needs first and assisting in those projects
4) build the village first, then repatriate as family that contributed its share to building the village.
This is the development model that the Balanta B’urassa History and Genealogy Society in America has successfully pursued with both the people and government in Guinea Bissau.
HERE IS WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN THIS MODEL IS NOT USED:
Black Star Lions
“October 24, 2013
THE FIHANKRA CONTROVERSY
Many people have heard about Fihankra over the years and while many have come forward to ‘claim’ their free land, many do not really understand what Fihankra is.
The term Fihankra is a Ghanaian expression which means, “When leaving home no goodbyes were said.” Fihankra, then, refers to all Africans from the Diaspora who are descended from the trans-Atlantic slave trade. That comprises some maybe 300 million people. That’s just a guess cause these figures could never be totally accurate.
The skin and stool of Fihankra are physical symbols which were purified to represent the apology given by several Ghanaian elders and the welcoming home of those of us out in the Diaspora. This was done in December 1994. It was considered an historic event and everyone was optimistic about the possibilities of joining the entire African family once again.
The land that many people refer to as Fihankra is really called Yeafa Ogyamu and is only one of many parcels of land that were offered, but few know this fact. The land was a ‘gift’ of the Akwamu people to represent their own personal atonement (for slavery). The land was given for all Fihankra, in other words, all of us descendants of the slave trade. The original people who made up the group given the land promised development of many kinds, including, fire station, police station, health facility, schools and various businesses. One family eventually usurped not only the land, but the stool and skin of Fihankra. They call(ed) themselves the 'royal family'. How this happened is not really clear. Some of the key figures are no longer on this plane and cannot answer that question. The man/chief’s name is down on the indenture as CUSTODIAN for the skin and stool of Fihankra.
What should have been an opportunity for African descendants to resettle became a personal business enterprise for one man. The fee for land started at $3,500 for one plot (100ft x 100ft), at a time when plots were leasing for approximately $200 with a 50 year lease. I never really understood whether a person who chose to have 5 plots would have to pay $17,500 or the same $3,500. With stool land the general procedure for acquiring land is to negotiate with the family chief, agree on a price, have the land surveyed and have the land registered. Then you are expected to pay a ‘land rent’ every year, half of which goes to the district assembly and half goes to the chief. This process ensures that each succeeding chief benefits a bit from the original land deal. For further clarity and information, the land rent today, after years of increases, on 6 plots of land is just under $100. On a new acquisition, the land rent on the same six plots may be only $30 (this is every year until an increase).
Back to Fihankra……. Around 2003 the tactics changed. The usurper decided that it would be better to charge a yearly fee and started with a fee of $100. By 2004 it was $200/year and recently we were told the fee was $800/year. The original usurper died in 2008 and many thought that the politics would change and become more favourable and just. Well, it seems we were completely wrong. Now the 'royal family' has decided that this land is their private property and that any others who try to do anything on the land are trespassers!!!!!!! The 'royal family' claims that one of the original custodian’s sons is the heir and successor and therefore it is his land. The landlord (an Akwamu chief) is not in accord with any of this and is working to remove that 'royal family' from the land.
We live ½ mile down the road from Yeafa Ogyamu so we have seen quite a bit in the almost 12 years we have lived here. Some of the things that we have witnessed include:
People pay their yearly fee to secure their plot. When they arrive to commence building they are told they have to pay infrastructure fees (which we are told are $800 per room) and until that is paid they cannot build.
People are not being showed where their plots are unless they pay the infrastructure fee.
The security guards are not allowing workers on the site, blocking any building from going on.
One sister sent close to $20,000 to have her home built and when she arrived all she found was a load of sand, and didn’t get her money back.
One sister paid for 3 plots for herself and 3 plots for her son (at the time the yearly rate was $200). When her husband went to clear the land some men came at him with rifles and told him he had no business to build there.
One man paid an astronomical amount for an incomplete building and when he wasn’t paying the agreed monthly payments, one of the 'royals' broke in and took all his legal documents.
Despite collecting yearly fees the land rent was left unpaid for several years until one land ‘owner’ paid all and started to keep decent records.
One family has been taken to court for trespassing, even though they are land owners. They wanted to have a small business and it was opposed by ……. Yes, you guessed it, the 'royal family’.
Many people have been turned away from acquiring land based on the fact that the ‘royal family’ feels they don’t have “what it takes” to build. Who are they to judge?
After about 18 years of having the land, the only people who are living at Yeafa Ogyamu other than the ‘royal family’ are two families. Another brother has stayed there for a length of 6 months so is basically living there also. After 18 years I would hope that a lot more families would have taken advantage of this gift from the chiefs. From what we know, we have close to or more than 10,000 people living in Ghana from the Caribbean and the united States. 10,000 people and only 8 people are living at Yeafa Ogyamu.
We have tried to stay out of this issue but it’s difficult to watch such injustice occurring and not react. The question is, what to do and how to 'free' the land so that interested parties can come and develop their homes and/or businesses. We are putting this out so that the truth can be known and the correct people come forward to assist in this freeing. Many blessings.”
TESTIMONY OF KHAMEELAH SHABAZZ
“I became involved with Fihankra in 2006 after attending a lecture at Savior's Day in Chicago. The lecture was conducted by Saladdin Ali and Minister Akbar Muhammad. We were presented information and given a professional video marketing Fihankra by telling us we would receive a free plot of land and all we had to do was compete the paperwork and pay $500. I mailed in the $500 plus my last payment for the tour. We were taken to the land, met the chiefs and even toured several bate houses on the property. Now I realize Fihankra was orchestrated. The day after visiting Fihankra I met a young man and his wife who repatriated to Ghana. Right out of the clear blue he came up to me and asked what was I doing in Ghana. I told him about claiming land in Fihankra. He told me not to get involved with that land because there were toooooo many disputes with the chiefs. I took his advice. In 2012 while in Ghana a Ghanaian told me Mr Akpam had been killed and several years ago two other people were murdered and buried on that land. I made the mistake of buying a dream without requesting the business plan and verifying the validity of the project. I still have my papers to the plot of land.”
See the Fihankra Constitution Below
Chieftaincy minister sued over Akwamufie 'chieftaincy tussle'
October 13, 2014 By Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah
“The Chieftaincy Minister has defended a decision to arrest some persons claiming to be Chief and Queen mother of an African-American community at Akwamufie in the Eastern Region.
Dr Seidu Danaa said the arrest of the claimants to the Fihankra Stool is to restore lasting peace to the area and to ensure that "the right thing is done."
Goloi Osakwe Akpan and his mother, Majewa Akpan were arrested over the weekend for allegedly creating a near chieftaincy crisis in the area.
A third suspect, said to be the leader of a group of African- Americans who settled in Akwamufie in the Eastern region in 1997 was also arrested but granted bail.
Erna Terefe-Kasa, an aunt to one of the arrested persons has challenged the basis for the arrest of the three.
She told Joy News' Dzifa Bampoh the suspects were arrested for holding themselves out as chiefs, something they never did.
She explained her nephew's father had been enstooled as chief in 1997 but after he died the nephew became the "custodian of the stool and skin."
She said at no point did her nephew call himself chief of the area.
Erna Terefe-Kasa has filed a suit against the Minister of Chieftaincy as well as the Attorney General, seeking justice for what she says is the bad treatment being meted out to her family.
But the Chieftaincy Minister told Joy News the conduct of the suspects is reprehensible and if action is not taken the situation could take a turn to the worse.
Dr Danaa told Joy News nobody can hold himself out as chief "when you are not qualified to do so."
He said "if you acquire land, that is good but acquiring a land does not give you a right to be a chief."
According to him, the names as given by Osakwe Akpan and his mother Majewa Akpan are not recognised in the register of chiefs.
The decision to arrest the three is to bring peace to the area, he insisted.”
UNDERSTANDING THE REPARATIONS AND REPATRIATION CONTEXT IN GHANA
According to Toward Reparations Policy In Ghana A study of the Reparations Movement in Ghana, West Africa:
“On Thursday, August 12, 1999 representatives of African descent from Cote d’Ivoire, Namibia, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Jamaica, Tanzania, Zamibia, USA, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Barbados, Martinique, and Guadaloupe gathered in Accra, Ghana at the W. E.B. DuBois Memorial Center for Pan-African Culture for the International Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission Conference under the leadership of the Afrikan World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission (AWRRTC). As a follow-up to this historic meeting, the delegates crafted a declaration that not only called for the immediate cancellation of international debt owed by Africa and all countries of African slave descendants and $777 trillion principal with interest per annum from the nations of Western Europe, the Americas, and institutions who benefited from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism, but also for the unconditional right of return to Africa for the direct descendants of enslaved Africans. In addition, the declaration noted, “the root causes of Africa’s problems today are the enslavement and colonization of Africa and of African people over a 400 year period-through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the illegal occupation by European nations on Africa’s sovereign soil. As a follow-up to the 1999 conference, AWRRTC organized a second International Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission Conference, held July 28-30 2000 in Accra, Ghana, during which delegates drafted an action plan aimed at bringing the tenants central to the 1999 declaration to fruition. The plan called for African nations and those nations of African descent in the Diaspora to immediately stop debt-servicing payments, and “rightfully use debt servicing capital for domestic development” , it also called for the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to allocate four observer seats to representatives of the African Diaspora of North, Central, South America, and the Caribbean regions. The action plan also supported Ghana’s Immigration Bill #573, which would give descendants of those enslaved the right of abode in Ghana, and encouraged Ghana’s traditional rulers to set aside lands for resettlement and development in agriculture, small scale industry, and education.”
In 2007, Ghana launched The Joseph Project. At the time, New African magazine reported,
“Diasporan Africans who have yearned for years to return to the motherland but have not been able to do so, can now have no more excuses to stay back. An innovative programme launched by the Ghanaian government, called The Joseph Project, is all that they need to return home. . . . The Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations (MOTDR) has drawn an elaborate plan to establish Ghana as the homeland for Africans in the Diaspora via an innovative Joseph Project, which takes inspiration from the story of the Biblical Joseph who was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brethren but triumphed over all adversity. . . . . The Joseph Project was initiated by the Ghanaian government through the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations in collaboration with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO). The project is being jointly funded by the Ghana government, UNWTO and UNESCO. . . . Its benefits are enormous, as it seeks to turn a painful past into a World Heritage Property and a major tourism attraction. Statistics show that colonial castles and forts are one of the most sought after tourism attractions in the world. The Joseph Project is basically Ghana's lead role in re-enacting the sordid chattel slavery and its devastating effects on mankind, especially Africans at home and in the Diaspora. . . . The Joseph Project is, therefore, Ghana's invitation to Diasporan Africans to return to the land of their ancestors.
The project was formally launched on 15 February 2007 during a meeting of African tourism ministers in Accra. It is the lead activity in the Akwaaba, Anyemi programme of the Ghana Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations (MOTDR) aimed at reestablishing the African nation as one for all Africans--whether living at home or in the Diaspora. . . . In 1994, the government of President Jerry Rawlings took these ideas a step further when it launched "Emancipation Day" to be celebrated annually in commemoration of the day when African slaves in the Americas, the Caribbean and elsewhere got their freedom. . . . The Ghana government, therefore, intends to use the 50th anniversary of the country's independence, which coincides with the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, to celebrate "African excellence. . . .”
I went to Ghana in 2007 as part of the Joseph Project and a journalist covering the African Union Grand Debate on the United States of Africa. I, along with many others, criticized the approach by Ghana and other government to make “heritage tourism” the primary aim of engaging the African Diaspora because essentially, it was only a marketing plan aimed at attracting tourism revenue and business development, and was not primarily concerned with issues of justice, human development, and the needs of the African Diaspora for physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual repair. They were attempting to make money the priority.
It is from these two experiences, in Shasheman, Ethiopia, and with Fihankra in Ghana that the inspiration to develop a new model of development was born, and that model has now crystallized in the Lineage Restoration Movement. I saw firsthand what happens when the African Diaspora attempts to create new “ethnic groups” such as Rastafari and Fihankra, and is seen as foreigners moving into a new territory. As an alternative to that model, the Lineage Restoration Movement aims to re-integrate and assimilate the African Diaspora back into the community from which it ACTUALLY came from and once integrated, the village and the repatriate development becomes one and the same. If you would like to learn more about this approach, go to
LINEAGE RESTORATION MOVEMENT
and sign the petition
A BABY NAMED FIHANKRA
by Curtis Murphy
I have been living in Ghana since 2011 and I will say The Government of Ghana have been fair and given AA’s and all Africans who are antecedents of Africans placed into enslavement, an opportunity to be treated as any other African with the same rights as Ghanain citizens... None of you who have posted in this thread from the very person who made the initial post down to the last person that posted before me understand the Ghana/African culture in regards to ones existence. You don't understand the significance of a Ghana Stool. Without an in depth understanding of a stool you are definitely in the "Obuni/foreigner" state of mind. For the past 23 years Ghana government has given us the opportunity to be full equal citizens thru the traditional system, sense and culture that every other African citizen has, but the actions and routes AA’s have taken is the non African based cultural approach to living and being accepted as a citizen here in Ghana. Let me give you an analogy story, to help you understand. A child name "Fihankra" was born/created 23 years ago from the genes of all Africans taken into slavery in the Diaspora.. The Baby, Fihankra was the inheritor of 32,000 acres of land with the rights of every other citizen of Ghana.. The child, was abandoned on the Ghana streets, by the father and the mother could not be found. Some UN-scrupled people visiting Ghana from American, AA's, recognized the child and the potential profits that could be had from "Baby Fihankra" and so they took/kidnapped, the child off the streets and claimed to be Baby Fihankra, parents. They told lies about them being the birth parents of the child. The lie was told, over and over again, to all the AA's that visited Ghana and so AA's believed the story of the kidnappers and not knowing the truth paid little to no attention to "Baby Fihankra" and didn't know the child, their genetic relative was being mistreated, abused, and exploited. In 2011 some AA's genetic researchers discovered the truth about Baby Fihankra and began to fight for the child's freedom from the Kidnappers. In 2014, The Ghana government through official document recognized what had happened and ordered the child to be reunited with her genetic parents and people. The kidnappers refused and were arrested and the child was took away from them. Now the child Fihankra is 23 years old and wish to unite with her genetic family but her genetic family is ignoring her still. Karma came in and a robber murdered the kidnappers, trying to rob them of the money they had scammed by selling Fihankra’s land. The End of this analogy story. We should not expect to be treated as Africans but not come through the traditional African way, that of the "African Stool "? Ghana government is proud of their culture but seem to not explain it to us, AA’s very well, one has to experience it, it seems. The Ghana Government, the Government that was in existence when our ancestors were taken away, That government is still in existence and offer our way back to Africa under the same conditions in which our ancestors left, with land and rights.. We belonged to the Fihankra "Stool and Skin", our ancestors belonged to a "STOOL OR A SKIN" when they left and we are offered the same method of return based on an African identity through a Traditional Stool or skin, but we have neglected to accept it. Those of you who want to be in the know please google the "Tabom People" in Ghana. They were the Africans that repatriated from Brazil in the early part of the 19th century. They were given full rights of Ghana citizens, which included land and the right to vote, and a seat for representation in the government. We can talk more but I have to leave for now, I can say with certainty that when Bill Clinton was president he made an offer to former Ghana president, Jerry Rwalings that if Ghana would deny AA's citizenship, the USA government would pay for the construction of Ghana infrastructure of highways. Thus, Ghana has the " George Bush" Highway named for George Bush to furnish the funds to finish the deal Clinton had started. End of story!!!! Except The Repatriation Movement is threat to US National Security. America will not know what to do if all the descendants of the people they enslaved was to leave. Make a list of all the jobs White Americans have off of the presence of African/Black people in the US...!!! United State Government is proactive... and they noisey as hell...