TRAVEL TO AFRICA, LIVE IN GHANA!

This episode is brought to you by A.M. Gold Wines in Tesano. They are the importers and distributors of 12 different brands of wine from Spain and Italy. They sell at wholesale prices and I'm sure when you call them they'll make you a very good offer. Welcome back to Tintum Network. I'm Cyrus. Today I want to share with you something that I've thought about for so many months and I think it's about time I did it now. Africa is very big and Africa is diverse. Unlike in Europe and in other places where there's only one tribe of people Africa has multiplicity of tribes. Ghana alone has more than 50 tribes and I'm going to give you a lot of reasons why it's about time as an African-American or Black Brit that in your plans to travel outside of your comfort zone you considered Africa and most especially you considered Ghana. Let's go. You see, honestly speaking, Africa has seen so much wars in the past so much tribal disputes and all that. We've seen so much slavery and people being taken away from this beautiful continent to the rest of the world. It is true but that narrative is quickly changing and in some places in Africa it's totally changed. The population of Africa has now quadrupled and it's mostly youth. Everything is picking up in Africa now especially the economy is rising. Things are getting more fun and interesting unlike before and the politics is improving. Remember Africa is still young in terms of when we got our independence and what we have been able to do since then. We are still comparing ourselves with our colleagues who are our peers as a matter of fact in South Korea, in China, in Singapore, in Malaysia and we still have a lot of room for development so we understand all that but there is a lot more going on in Africa than you are used to on the TV and in the news and I'm here to bring that to your attention. If you are an African American or a Black British or you live in any way in any of the Caribbeans you should know for a fact that it all started here. This is the motherland. This is where your ancestors were put in the ship and taken through the door of no return and taken out there and so it should be something that makes you want to come back to Africa knowing that you have cousins all across the oceans on the other side of the world and that should excite you and want you to come and know it for yourself what is going on here. In my little experience traveling outside of Ghana I have experienced how it feels like to be in the minority of the group of people and coming back home how it feels like being in the majority of the group and I'm very sure that some of you guys out there especially for the Black folks out there you may be one percent Black or 99 percent Black you're still Black you may not know how that feeling is like but you have to come down here to first of all have a glimpse of how it feels like to be accepted wholly and to be loved by your people and Ghana is full of Black people and very welcoming place to be. You may want to travel to any other African countries and it's something I would encourage you to do that but Steve Harvey will say it best when you look at the video up here. Forget everything you've ever heard after you go to Africa you got to go to Ghana first well he talks about the need for you to travel to Africa but begin in Ghana this is a country where we are very very hospitable to the point where sometimes we love the foreigner more than the local people and we welcome you wholeheartedly because we have the castle still here we have the forts and and the slave yards where all the slaves were processed and shipped out of the country into the rest of the world so we have that connection knowing that most Black people out there had their ancestors at one point in time taken through the Gold Coast which is the previous name of Ghana before they were taken out and the first slave dungeon built here in West Africa which is the Elmina castle which is still sitting there so we have a lot of reasons to welcome you back now in 2019 Ghana marked the 400th year since slavery was introduced in Ghana this was when slaves were being taken from here to Europe way before slaves first arrived in America and we had a lot of Hollywood stars and normal people from all over the world from a lot of Caribbeans and Jamaicans were here we have a lot of Jamaicans living here actually who came down and had a lot of experience with the local people and went to those places to see what what went on during that time we called it the year of return which right now is called beyond the return and currently there is a program ongoing which allows Black people who are outside of of the continent of Africa to return back to Ghana live here for I think five to ten years in totality and then qualify to become citizens of this country this great nation and I think it's a great thing for you living out there to to also be a part of what is happening here because the opportunities here are many looking at all the industries that we have the music industry which is not well developed and the movie industry which I don't think we have and there's so much contribution you could come in with and bring to the table and that is what we expect from you guys but unfortunately during the the year of return there was one thing that was very prevalent which I thought was not very nice to put it in the best way and that was I saw a lot of old people coming through which I thought whoa whoa these are very old people who have lived most of their youthful lives in their respective countries and they are sort of coming down here and then perhaps die here and Africa will be looking something like a cemetery or something but that is not what we want we want you guys to come when you are still young active and have a lot of things to contribute to this great economy and this morning I was looking at the forex exchange on my phone and I realized that one US dollar is actually 13 Ghana cities and one British pound is more than 15 Ghana cities meaning that if you came from either USA or the UK into Ghana with only say one thousand dollars or pounds you get what 15,000 13,000 Ghana cities also meaning that you with just about 15,000 dollars or pounds you could own a piece of land and build a property on it and live here we have so many wonderful things happening and there is this question that I need to answer before I move on with the other good reasons why you should travel to Ghana and it was asked me by an African American lady the other day that why is it that on the internet you hear or see people taking foreigners lands and all that it is not always the case I was trying to explain to her you see how the the real estate thing works in Ghana is because I know I do real estate okay so I know a little bit about it people want to buy lands and live in line there for a long time before coming back to do anything on it that is not how it works if you buy the lands from the real estate agencies the policy is like that in in the first two years you're actually supposed to put up something on that land if you don't do that then the real estate have the you know the prerogative to to to to replace that land with a different land for you and quite often it happens and people get angry and confused and say things are not actually working properly always try to get in touch with the right people so that you can get the right things done for you one other good thing in the real estate industry in Ghana is that currently we have a real estate you know policy which allows you in Ghana to own a piece of land where you can literally do the title deed on it in your own name and own it without paying any monthly or yearly charges or fees and and then you you you see all the development going around you where many many big companies and popular people in America owns acres of land here in Ghana I think it's about time you got your own space too and so this is one good reason I met this other lady at the Burger King and I think she's also from America and she was like surprised to see it in Ghana and I'm like oh we have KFC here we have Pizza Inn and Pizza Hut here we have a lot of these foreign franchises here and I was rather shocked she was asking me because why would she travel all the way from America to Ghana to eat the foods that she knows where we have so many wonderful foods in Ghana like our local foods Ampesi, Fufu and Tilapia Banku and and Tilapia we have Wachi which a lot of Nigerians love and a lot of friends that I know love and then we have the Jollof rice which is now a battle between Ghana and Nigeria as to who does it better and my bias will tell you I'm a Ghanaian so Ghana goes so there are a lot of great things security and safety is one thing that I know you care about the most and here in Ghana we have a lot of that in spite of all the little problems that we have with thefts here and there we still have a lot of peace in this country if you come here you see a lot of other African nationals living here there's a lot of peace on our roads across the regions there's a lot of intermarriages intertribal marriages in this country we have more than 50 tribes and there's a lot of people moving across the regions and even to the point where right now we have a lot of inter religious marriages where Muslims marry Christians and Christians marry traditionalists and all that so we live together as one people with one common destiny and and movement within the country is now getting even easier with all the airports that we have scattered across our 16 regions we have almost nine airports currently and more are coming so there are pretty good things happening in Ghana and I think you should come in early than to wait and come later racism okay it's a real thing which I have experienced it firsthand and it was so traumatizing to the point where for many months I couldn't literally come out of my room in the country that I was in and I didn't know I was a black man and I didn't know I was dangerous until I got there and for you living out there as a black person if that is the feeling you have maybe it's a sign that it's about time you came to where you are loved the most and Africa loves you Ghana loves you you may want to be here as your second home and have a small home here you know things happen for a reason and I always see things in that light sometimes the places that you live they may not fully accept you because of the color of your skin and because of their ignorance or whatever reasons it's okay but it doesn't mean you shouldn't go to where you are loved and cherished and we have a lot of different festivals and carnivals in Ghana now like the Afrochela in in in December in Christmas we have the Chaloote festival we have the one in Takrade which is the masquerade festival we have the Goba festival we have the Easter festival which is on in the eastern eastern region of Ghana on the mountains where we have the biggest hotel in all of Africa out up there it is actually called the rock city we have so many magnificent places to travel to in Ghana the waterfalls the paragliding the wildlife the canopy walk and the many arable lands for those who want to engage in farming we need a lot of that here and so the opportunities are all open up to you whether for business or for leisure coming back to the motherland it's not just a physical thing it's more spiritual than that the Chinese do it they go back to their home country no matter where they live the Jews go back to Israel the Indians go back to India and as a black man living wherever you are now it is on you to know where it all started and to make that trip which is very very necessary and in addition most of the cities we have in Ghana today are all cosmopolitan with fast internet everywhere 4G for you to connect with your family and we have you know five-star hotels scattered across all these beautiful cities we have political stability here we have quite stable electricity here in fact we have a lot of good things going on for us and we want to welcome you back home when you make that trip and now in conclusion Africa is fast changing it's time for you to book that trip and make that journey to the motherland and when you get here we'll be here to say welcome home in Akwaba until I come your way again bye-bye for now