Mildred Taylor | Face2FaceAfrica
More than 50,000 people, including diasporans, united at Ghana’s Black Star Square in the
country’s capital Accra for the inaugural Black Star Line Festival on Friday. The free open-air
music concert was founded by U.S. stars Chance The Rapper and Chicago-born Ghanaian Vic
Mensa.
Besides Mensa and Chance, other top performers at the event were Erykah Badu, T-Pain, Tobie
Nwigwe, and Ghanaian stars like Sarkodie, Asakaa Boys, and M.anifest. The concert was a
climax of activities held in the week by Mensa and Chance to bring together the diaspora to
contribute their resources and skills to help develop the African continent. Those activities
included panel discussions, fine art exhibitions and nightlife events.
Ahead of the January 6 concert, comedian Dave Chappelle and Chance had a conversation at
the University of Ghana on Thursday. And on Friday, Chapelle, who was also at the concert,
said it was “great” to be in Ghana. He had some months ago expressed his desire to move to
the West African country.
Dennis Haze, who came from Washington DC for the concert, told the BBC that “Its beautiful to
see the Black American culture and African culture unite.”
In 2019, Ghana’s government launched the “Year of Return” initiative in an effort to encourage
Africans in the diaspora to find their way ‘home’, commune and reactivate their love for their
roots and people. That year also marked the 400th Anniversary of the first ship from Africa
hitting the shores of the Americas – precisely Virginia.
Chance first came to Ghana in January 2022 in response to Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-
Addo’s call for the diaspora to return to the ‘motherland.’ What was supposed to be another
vacation getaway for Chance eventually turned out to be something deeper than he had
imagined. He soon found himself immersed in Ghana’s music culture and learned about
Ghana’s rich anti-colonial history. Since his first trip to Ghana, he has returned to the West
African nation three times. He decided to organize a free concert and art event for others to
experience Ghana’s diverse culture as he did.
Chance said that the tagline for his concert is inspired by Jamaican activist and political leader
Marcus Garvey, who founded the Black Star Line which became a source of economic
opportunities and inspiration for black workers between North America, the Caribbean and
Africa.
Mensa, who organized the concert with Chance, told Forbes that he had been visiting his family
in Ghana since he was 11 years old. But it wasn’t until the year 2020 that he started to go to
Ghana alone and cultivate relationships in the spaces of music, fashion, and art.
“In those moments, I’ve started to recognize the immense privilege that I have to be in direct
communication and conversation with my ancestry, as obviously something that’s been stolen
by most of the people closest to me in life,” he said.
The rappers hope that the Black Star Line festival will help bridge the gap between Black people
abroad and in Africa, they told AP.
“I think that specifically, the story of the founder’s independence is something that all black
people should know,” he said “There are no free sub-Saharan African countries until 1957. I
think they should know about the revolutionary leaders on the continent and abroad. I think that
if we had this connectedness and this interaction, people will actually have a chance to see
this.”
This article was originally posted to Face2FaceAfrica