Motown legend, social activist and humanitarian Stevie Wonder has plans to expatriate to Ghana. He spoke candidly about this decision to move permanently to the motherland with Oprah last November.
Wonder explained, during The Oprah Conversation, that he wants to live in a place were he feels valued as a person, according to a story in Black Enterprise.
“I promise you [America], if you do the right thing, I will give you this song. I will give it to you. You can have it,” he said in the interview. “Because I wanna see this nation smile again. And I want to see it before I leave to travel to move to Ghana because I’m going to do that.”
When Winfrey asked if the R&B legend was going to make his move to Ghana permanent, Wonder responded in the affirmative.
“I am,” said Wonder who played a major role
in fight to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a federal holiday.He said he chose Ghana because he didn’t want to see anymore of his offspring have to beg for acceptance in this country.
“I don’t want to see my children’s, children’s children have to say ‘oh please like me. Please respect me, please know that I am important, please value me’. What is that?”
In recent years, the Ghanaian government has been very welcoming of expatriates across the diaspora, particularly of Black Americans. They have been asking of people to “come home” and leave a place where you are not wanted.
According to a report in Irish Times, The west African country’s coast was historically a slave-trading hub,” and now wants to be seen as a place of “return.”