American television host, comedian, and writer, Conan Christopher O'Brien, has joined the Year of Return “train”, campaigning greatly for Africans in the diaspora to return to their home.
Having been impressed with the country’s historic tourist sites on his first visit to Ghana, Conan is embarking on a lofty project of convincing others to have a feel of the slave history.
Conan, who spent weeks in Ghana, went to the Osu Castle in Accra and met with some African-Americans who stormed the slave house to 'witness' the suffering of their forefathers in the hands of their colonial masters.
During Conan’s interaction with the visitors from Chicago, American, they disclosed that they came to Ghana to connect with their heritage, culture and history. According to them, when they heard about the Year of Return initiative, “We thought it will be so important to bring people from the diaspora to come to Ghana”.
Sharing their thought on the experiences they have had, the leader of the guests said, they seized the opportunity to come to Ghana because it was important for them to understand what their ancestors faced and being survivors of that outrageous treatment, they wanted to “have that connection with them”.
“It is very important to remember those who came before us and this is really deep to see those who resisted were killed on the journey and those who survived were taken from their home”.
“It’s kind of awaken to experience that we’ve actually been free for roughly hundred six years whereas we’ve been bondage for four hundred year. So physically but mentally not so much”.
“Personally, I am realizing how much redial stress I’m under every day in America and I don’t even realize it that went I walk into spaces where I am among the minority, I am constantly checking myself but here in Ghana I don’t feel that. When I am here I feel like I am home”.
“It is powerful connectivity of so many different pieces of our history that being here connects it all in ways that other places can’t”.
“One thing that is striking is that 400 years of slavery, think about it, how many generations of people, good people that sat on the sideline to watch slavery occur. This is a lesson that we all need to learn is that when we see injustice happening whether personally or our neighbours, we have to find a way to speak out and stand up”, the emotional visitors told Conan at the Osu Castle.
Conan described the experience as "literally coming home" and noted that he's going to keep a "foothold" in Ghana, perhaps in the form of an apartment.
