The Best IG Fashions This Week: Year of Return

A host of black people from around the world celebrated the New Year in Ghana.

In addition to Afrochella taking place during the Holiday, the country recently granted citizenship to 126 Americans of African decent to celebrate Year of Return.

The Year of Return marks 400 years since the anchoring of an English ship in Jamestown, Virginia carrying a small group of enslaved Africans.

“We recognize our unique position as the location for 75% of the slave dungeons built on the west coast of Africa through which the slaves were transported. That is why we had a responsibility to extend the hand of welcome, back home to Africans in the diaspora,” President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a speech given on November 27th.

The granting of citizenships called global attention to the country’s Right of Abode law, which gives anybody of African ancestry in the Americas, the right to stay in Ghana indefinitely. Aside from the obvious sentimental reasons, the “Return Home” makes sense economically, as it has increased tourism (especially among African American celebrities, black college alumni organizations, and similar groups).

Check out some of our favorite looks from the Holiday / Year of Return in Ghana below!