The Door of Return is an emblem of
African Renaissance
The African Renaissance is the concept that the African people shall overcome the current challenges confronting the continent and achieve cultural, scientific, and economic renewal. This concept was first articulated by Cheikh Anta Diop in a serie ...
and is a pan-African initiative that seeks to launch a new era of cooperation between Africa and
its diaspora in the 21st century.
The initiative is Chaired by the Hon.
Timothy E. McPherson Jr.
Timothy E. McPherson Jr (Chief Semako I) is a descendant of the Nanny Town Maroons (Windward Maroons) and he is the chairman for the Economic Community of States, Nations, Territories and Realms of the African Diaspora Sixth Region (ECO-6) and he i ...
, Minister of Finance for the
Accompong Maroons
Maroons are descendants of African diaspora in the Americas, Africans in the Americas who escaped from slavery and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples, eventually ethnogenesi ...
in Jamaica, and is being spearheaded across Africa in cooperation with Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe
as part of the United Nations's
. The name is a reference to the "
Door of No Return", a monument commemorating the
transatlantic slave trade.
On 24 August 2017, Nigeria erected the first symbolic Door of Return monument as part of the
Diaspora Festival in Badagry. The symbolic monument was unveiled under the auspices of the Hon.
Abike Dabiri
Abike Kafayat Oluwatoyin Dabiri-Erewa (born 10 October 1962 ) is a Nigerian politician and former member of the Nigeria Federal House of Representatives representing Ikorodu Constituency in Lagos State. She was the Chairman of the House Committee ...
, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora and Foreign Affairs.
A permanent monument is to be unveiled in August 2018, which is when Accompong will also unveil its permanent monument.
The Door of Return initiative is expected to advance African economic development in areas of tourism, infrastructure and renewable energy. The erection of Door of Return Monuments are intended to promote inter-continental travel and act as a symbol of Africa’s openness to the Diaspora.
See also
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African Americans in Africa
The history of African-American settlement in Africa extends to the beginnings of ex-slave repatriation to Africa from European colonies in the Americas.
History Ex-slaves
The immigration of African Americans, West Indians, and Black Britons ...
*
Back-to-Africa movement
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Diaspora tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being ...
*
Genealogy tourism (Africa)
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Return to roots
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Right of return (Ghana)
*
Year of Return, Ghana 2019
The Year of Return, Ghana 2019 is an initiative of the government of Ghana – along with the U.S.-based Adinkra Group – that is intended to encourage African diasporans to come to Africa (specifically Ghana) to settle and invest in the continent ...
References
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African and Black nationalism
African diaspora
Slavery memorials