This is the most important decision any African in the diaspora must make
Coming back home from the diaspora must be by design, and that design must start long before you can come back whether you ‘get paper’ or ‘you noh get paper.’ Notwithstanding the level of development in your country, or level of political stability because those things can and do change for the better. Case and point Sierra Leone where between 1991-2002; there was war and instability.
Today in 2019, there have been five national and peaceful transitions of power, and the IMF predicts 5.1% growth for 2019 up from 3.7%. If you want to return to the continent to settle and build a life here, you must be intentional about it and plan your life accordingly.
The most important decision you will make in the diaspora
As early as age 13, when I arrived in Maryland, I knew that America was a pitstop and that I did not want to make my life there. Knowing this so early on shaped my education, what I did on my college summer vacations, and later even who I dated.
The most important decision any documented or undocumented African in the diaspora must make is this: Do I want to build and make my life in my new home country or Do I want to build my life back home. If you want to build there, then you integrate fully into American life. The nationality of who you marry doesn’t matter, what you study, or your career only needs to be relevant for the US economy.
However, if like me, the destination is home in Africa (Sierra Leone) then you must be intentional about everything to ensure that your life’s compass in the diaspora will lead you back home.
Education
When you plan to return to the continent to settle, then you have to be strategic about your education. While in the US you can get a sociology degree, criminology, psychology, and anthropology degree and go on to have really good jobs as a generalist, these won't set you up for success back home. At least not if you want to work in fields related to your expertise. When you start thinking of coming back home, certain jobs don't exist in this job market, and your education might not translate to employment in the economy, even given the bias towards foreign acquired degree holders. What does translate are technical skills; accounting, engineering, computer science, software development, architecture, graphic design, construction, auto mechanics, video and photo production, etc.
If you want to end up building at home, then your education and career plans must reflect that.
Relationships
When I was in the US, my desire to return home to the continent and specifically Sierra Leone was so strong that I didn’t date outside of West Africa. I always had this fear that if I dated a white or black American and we got married they would never really be truly okay with moving back with me. I’m not saying it isn’t possible, but I just never trusted that they would. Even dating Sierra Leoneans I learned that some did not want to return home and weren’t designing their lives for it. I always let anyone I dated know that my dream was to move back to the African continent by the age of 30. I figured worse case if I ended up with another African at least I would be on the continent, but not living in Africa at all was a deal-breaker for me. Ironically choosing to move to Sierra Leone in 2007 was what ended a 6-year relationship that I had up until then.
If you want to find your way back home, you have to let people know, and you have to be firm, and real and honest that this is the life you envision and will live out. There are people from the same country, village, and community that are in the diaspora who never want to return, so you still have to ask them these questions, so you know what they want. For example; there are husbands who want to return whose wives are not comfortable with allowing them to because they know that their husbands will come and become their true African husband selves. And they will then have to become African wives. But let me move on from this place.
Whoever you date don’t paint a rosy picture of the home you want to return to; don’t try to sell anyone a dream of your country that doesn't exist. I mean don’t try to convince them at all. You have to say you know that place with no light, no running water, poor healthcare facilities, corruption, misogyny, where my family will spill into our lives, where I will do some things you don't like because it is my culture that place is where I am planning to build my life. Is that a life you want for yourself? Would you be happy there for you and feel fulfilled even if we weren't together? It is important that their desire to build on the continent is separated from yours and not motivated by you.
This way, should things not work out with the relationship after you move no one gets to guilt you with, “but I moved to Africa.” I guarantee that If you don’t have the conversation of where to settle early on and then go on to have children, it will indefinitely delay your return, or you may be returning home without your family or never actually be able to live at home although your soul wants to be.
Just get some money and then I’ll move back
There is a fallacy that people in the diaspora often have, and that is that there is no money to be made at home. So if you want to move back home you first have to gather all the money you need before you can move. I would say that what we need is a paradigm shift. None of Africa’s richest people, Aliko Dangote and company made their money in Babylon. There is money to be made on the continent.
What we don't have here are jobs for returnees, but there is plenty of money to be made if you focus on getting the right skills and education in the diaspora. So what you should be thinking instead of getting money to move back to finance your return it is how do I invest my money in a business that will create jobs, add value to the economy, and make me Dangote rich or close.
In the case of Sierra Leone, there are endless possibilities, so many local industries are still nonexistent, while in other countries on the continent each sector is saturated with many players. Sierra Leone and much of the content is still for the taking, and are foreigners coming in to make the investments in the retail, small scale manufacturing, and services in the way that our diaspora has yet to do.
You can move home, but nothing can prepare you for it
If, like me, you end up spending a decade or more in the diaspora, then one other thing you have to accept is that there isn’t anything you can do to prepare for the return. And by preparing I mean mental preparation. Just like nothing could prepare you for the transition to life abroad, nothing can prepare you for the return.
Photos and videos produced by those who have already moved back can only show you so much. Nothing we tell you can prepare you for this. And truth be told many of us are also still figuring it out so many years later. If you’re going to come you have to come and accept that the process of returning, even after you get home requires transition for you and that adaptation and re-integration will take time — home changes when you leave even though your memories standstill. Africa moves on, and when you return you have to find your way through its people, new places, and old and new customs.
But what about healthcare and education it is not good in this your Africa
It is no lie that public schools in many African countries are struggling to educate our children to be competitive in the future global economy. But you know what? Neither are public schools in the US for the most part, the approach to learning and curriculum in the US public school system is also lagging. Very few countries are Finland.
There are quality schools in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, and across the continent. In Sierra Leone, for example, you can now check the performance of all schools in the country by district and level to find the best performing schools.
Beyond that, though, what I’ve learned as a parent is what makes the true difference in your child’s learning is you. If you want your child to excel in school it requires your involvement and commitment no matter where they are.
Ghana, for example, has excellent healthcare facilities. I’ve had surgery to remove a keloid on my ear in Accra, and my mother had double-knee replacement surgery also there.
Sierra Leone, though is not a place to return to for anyone who has a chronic life-threatening illness. There is a basic general health care service, but anything that requires regular maintenance and advanced healthcare you won’t find here.
Or you could see things through a different lens and say you know what my family and I deserve top-class healthcare in Sierra Leone, so I'm moving back, and I'm making it my mission to build a hospital or clinic in my community. I am going to find others who have the same mission, and we are going to come together and build a world-class facility in my home country.
The bottom line is that the things that we want for ourselves back at home are not going to exist if we don't become the pilgrims to build them.
Entrepreneurship is key
Unless you have technical skills or close ties to the government or both, there are no jobs here for you as a returnee. Jobs opportunities available are different for Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and other economies where global corporations are setting up regional headquarters in manufacturing, telecommunications, and technology. If you’re from a smaller and lesser developed country like Sierra Leone you will have a very hard time finding a job that will pay you the salary that you will want. It is why again you have to know if you want to come back early on to settle at home so you can gain the skills you need for employability. Business is not for everyone. That is a fact. So get the right skills for this job market if you feel that entrepreneurship will not work for you.
However, for most of us who return from the diaspora, entrepreneurship offers us the opportunity of a lifetime. Things we would never dream of doing in the diaspora we can build and do at home. If I had stayed in the US, I would have never gone into business. I would have been a salaried worker, but coming home allowed me (or forced me) to turn my passion into a business. And I am not alone. In Accra Yvette Ansah a UK-Educated lawyer realized that food was her passion and set up a best in town bistro in your hometown. In Freetown, a software developer Bimbola Carrol returned home and turned his passion for home into a travel and tour company. In returning to the continent to build you can find your life’s true purpose.
Sidebar: if after reading this you feel like you have gone about it all wrong, please don’t worry, Chinua Achebe once said there is more than one way to do anything, and he was right. It is possible not to plan to build here and wake up one morning when the ancestors call and pack your bags and move successfully. If home calls and you answer, anything is possible.
