Nigerian/American musician, Jidenna in an interview on ‘The Breakfast Club’ show on US-based power 105 has lauded President Akufo-Addo for giving African-Americans the opportunity to revisit their ancestral land, 400 years after the slave epoch.
He recounted his experience from the last time he was in Ghana and his intentions of coming back December this year.
“So we went to last year in December. I was part of a full circle which is Boris Kodjoe and Bozama’s initiative, hundred of us went and we went into the slave castles as a group of a hundred, actually a hundred plus so you can imagine we kind of feeling what enslaved people went through in these rooms. so it was one of the most powerful experiences of my life,” he said.
“Then what we did like just by being out there we increased travellers to Ghana by 25000 and each average traveller spends US3000 in the local economy that’s like 75 million dollars which are 1.58 per cent of the GDP of Ghana so that’s the influence you have” he added.
He referred to his new album ‘85toAfrica’ as a mission of his life and added that investing in Africa will go a long way to change everything.
“And for me, the most important thing is why I’m putting out this project not just by this album, ‘85toAfrica’ is about everything. This is the mission of my life, honestly. If we invest in Africa, invest in the continent, if Africa invests in the diaspora, we gon change everything, every hood. It’s not gon work the way we do it now”
He further narrated a wise saying he picked from his father – “you can’t inflate a balloon from inside the balloon. You must inflate it from outside” and suggested that same be done to the continent.
“The diaspora must take money from outside and put it in and the continent must take money from inside and out it out. So that’s the way I see it. It’s a highway right now.
Touching on the ‘year of return’ initiative, he said it deserves mass coverage.
“So the president of Ghana just announced recently that if you’re African American, if you’re Caribbean American or just from the diaspora and go back to Ghana and trace your roots or not, even if you just lived there you gonna be granted voting rights which are revolutionary”, he stated.
“We got a lot of headlines, they not big enough, that’s a big headline which changes how I look at things”, he continued.
“To me, we have to start thinking like citizens and immigrants at the same time”, he further added.
Jidenna Theodore Mobisson, better known as Jidenna, is a Nigerian/American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is set to drop a new album, ‘85toAfrica’ today, 23 August 2019.
–
By : Hajia Lamy Gates| ghanaweekend.com
