 We'll find our message for Africans in the diaspora. If you have a message for them to come back to Africa, what would that message be? That message would be to not come to Ghana for free land and Ghana is not cheap. It's not coming to Ghana to get something. You're coming to Ghana to give something. This is a nation. We are here to help build the nation. We're not here to separate ourselves from Ghanaian. We're coming to merge ourselves. We're coming back home. And we're here to build and support the nation of Ghana. This will be your life home forever. Your children's children will know where they're from. We will not need DNA from other people. Your DNA will be right here on Ghana land, the nation of Ghana. Come step on mama. Come step on mama Africa. Come pee on mama. Come pee on mama Africa. Come and let yourself know that you are belongs to mother Africa. And mama is waiting for you. And so are we. And we love you. And you're welcome. Aqabah. I want to say thank you so much for spending time with me. Oh, don't mention it. And I appreciate your time. It's been an honor. You are a son of the land. You are a son of Ghana. You're a son of the continent. And we appreciate you too. But before I finish, do you mind if I go, I want to present something to you. So can I? Yeah, can he follow you to the camera? No, you stay here. We are coming to you. A few moments later. On the behalf of what you do, you do so well. You are a new prophet. You are a new savior. You are a new everything. Because what you do affects all of us for generations to come. This is documented. So on the behalf of Ice Cafe and Grill in Kumanse and myself, Nana Bragoa Santua from Atlanta, our sister-in-law, we want to present this to you. It says what? Black Lives Matter. And you have made Black Lives Matter. So you are the true epitome of Black Lives Matter for the continent and the diasporic. And we want to present that to you. May you wear it well and with power in Jesus' name, amen. OK, you're more than well. Thank you. Yo, yo, yo. Yo. Ha, ha, ha. It's for you. And thank you so much. Rally. Yes. It's good to see you. Nice seeing you, my son. I mean, people ask, when did I meet you? I have seen your video on YouTube. And I met you today. Yes. Thanks to the owner of Ice Cafe. Don't be like, hey, you're coming to Kuman's. I want you to meet my mom. And you have to talk to my mom. And I'm like, your mom. And when I met you, I'm like, OK, now I get it. Your name is Nana Bragoa Santua. Oh, you've changed your name. Hey, since when I changed my name, it's Nana Bragoa Santua. Named after the greatest female warrior ever, yeah, Santua. Nana, in Ghana, we have to give respect to Nana. So when I say Nana, I have to, like, all down. Yeah, Nana, yeah, Santua. Me, no, no. Nana, you were born in America. Yes, I was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but 77 years ago. So I'm 77 years young. And at age 29, I wanted to do something before I was 30. So it was suggested I come to Ghana, West Africa. First time on an airplane. Never been on a plane, anything. And I came straight to Ghana. That was 1973. That was your first time in Ghana. As a solo traveler, or you came with a group? I came with a group from the African-American Institute out of New York. And Mel Johnson, during that time, Mel Johnson was the director out of New York. With a bunch, I think it was, like, 200-something of us on the plane, a chartered flight to Ghana. In those days, it was chartered flights to West Africa. How long did you stay in Ghana at that time? For us, I spent four weeks in Ghana and two weeks in Nigeria. And you'll return back to the United States? Return back, love Ghana. The ancestors wanted me back. A year and a half, I came back with three sons and a daughter in my belly. I came straight to Kamasi. Had my baby come from Nachi Hospital. Dr. Agbe was my doctor. Even before then, I met Kwame Nkrumah, the late and great Kwame Nkrumah's son, Francis, Nkrumah in Atlanta. And when I came with my pregnant, I just knew he would be my pediatrician. But he says no. He was in a cry, and he sent me... He recommended someone in Kamasi. Granny, why not Accra? But I decided to... Oh, I like the culture in Kamasi. I really don't like Accra. It chose Kamasi because of the culture. The culture. That's what I've been telling so many people, like, whenever you come to Ghana, just don't stay in Accra. No. Out of Accra to get to know what other cities have to offer. Everyone is talking about Accra. I want to stay in this one country, man. No. Accra is America lookalike I want to be. I can stay in America for that. Why do I want to come somewhere that looks like where I'm from? So, Kamasi, in those days, the cloth, the man-woke cloth, the chiefancy, the respect of the children to the parents and the market, you can't get that in Accra. You left America in 1973. A year and a half, you moved to Ghana. You came to settle in Kumasi. I want to know why you made that transition. I think I had no choice. Being born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but my family is from the country area of LaGrange, Georgia. And it was always country. It was always more village. We had outside toilet. We had water from the well. We had cows. So coming here was similar to what I'm used to, because I'm not used to the city. But even doing those days, graduating from high school, and I've always been a part of life. For instance, at 16, I was part of the civil rights movement. I was one of the people that the police would beat. We marched. I was locked up because of the march on the streets. I was afraid to get out of the jail. I'm not afraid of the white people or the abuse. I was afraid of my grandmother, because she told me not to go down and march. And I went anyway. So I knew she was gonna beat me when I get back. So it was, I just didn't want to get out to know, my parents gonna beat me, you know? Not knowing they too were rebels or, I wouldn't even say rebels, but my people have always fought for freedom and independence. My grandmother, Bessie Sylvils, my grandmother picked cotton. She was doing those days. My grandmother, my great grandfather, they picked cotton in the field. I didn't know. This is a true story. My grandmother was being paid 25 cents a week, 25 cents a week for the cotton she picked. But my granddaddy was paid 50 cents. So my grandmother went to the boss, the white man, and says, look, why is my husband making more money than me? And we picked the same amount, the same size. And he says, shh, Bessie, don't tell nobody. I'm gonna give you 50 cents too. You see, my females never shut up. My mother, when I was marching, during the civil rights movement, they, my mother worked in the cafeteria in the school as a cook. They came to her, the principal came to her and says, look Ruth, we hear you have a daughter that's marching in the street. If you do not tell her to stop, we are going to fire you or sack you. My mother, in those days, they had buttons down their uniform. They said she took her hand, opened up that uniform, all the buttons flew, and she said, you can have this job. I will never tell my daughter not to stop marching. So I'm with women who fight, you know? And being a santua, hey, you can't stop me. That's the greatest name honor I could ever receive. I don't take it for granted. Even now, at my age, I will fight for Ghana, been giving the citizenship last year and the year of return. And we took an oath with Kufa Adu, the president, that we would defend Ghana. So I'd rather defend Ghana than America. I will please. This is my home. This is my forever home on earth, is Ghana. When you come to my funeral, I know I'm looking forward to that, he ain't Ghana in my village. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. And it's gonna be a tro-tro, you know, everybody laugh. Oh, you coming in tro-tro. I'm a tro-tro queen too. You don't know all about that. I love tro-tro. But now we have to protect ourselves because of the COVID. How was the transition? Because like you were almost, let's say 30 years and you were both... Yeah, I was like 31. 31. Mm-hmm. It was awesome. I worked hard in the States, as I tell you, I worked two jobs. Most people knew I was coming to Africa. I had to pack up my things. I had to get a new car, bought my first car, came to Ghana at Tama Port. All those things I had to learn. I had to also find a house here in Kamasi, which I end up living in N.C.I.S.U., one of the new subdivision during those days. Because remember, that's 47 years ago, 46 years ago. So those things I had to learn, we stayed at the whole, we stayed at the university, science and technology for a couple of months. You know, until I found somewhere to stay. And the students there at Prince Hall, now we'll forget. I was the only female there because this was in the summer. So it was summer school. So the students there in Prince Hall, which is all male dormitory, they gave me the bathroom on the second floor, whatever it was, just for me. And they took the other, you know, bathrooms or toilets. And when I moved to my home, they came and unpacked everything for me. They did a wonderful job, wonderful job. I know the Santihini, the first one, a Pukawari. I met him. I had on all my kente and all that. And he asked me to stay in Kumasi. How did the people treat you when you go here? Oh, that's why I'm here today. Everybody was so wonderful. Met so many people. Victor Wusu, I mean, I named, I could name so many people in my life. You really felt at home in Ghana? Oh yes, I felt at home in Ghana. I learned so much about the culture in my village. At that time, it was not my village, but I was the first foreigner to ever come to Sisriwa. And it took 20-some years later, they instilled me as Queen Mother of Development. But in the meantime, I was bringing in groups, doing water wells. We did, we put the first electric poles in the village, had no electricity, but the poles were there. They used to laugh at our village saying, what are these, you know? But it was a sign of hope for the future. So a lot of things went on here. I know how to bathe with a bucket of water. I know how to go to the toilet outside. Hey. Ha ha ha ha ha. It really lived with the people. Oh yeah, oh yeah. With all these years, all these experience, I mean, moving into Africa, why is it that it's so, like so many African-Americans feel reluctant to visit the motherland? I'm not saying move, but why do you think most of them feel reluctant visiting the continent? I know it's spiritual. It's the ancestors. We must take that serious. Something about us as the first people on earth anyway is that we are spiritual. And that spirit, that blood that's in you, will speak, because blood speaks. And when you come here, you will feel it. And when you leave, you can smell God. If you go to New York, Chicago, whatever, and you come to Ghana, when you go back, believe me, you're gonna smell Ghana. You're gonna feel Ghana. Or any other country you go to in West, in Africa. I can't speak for other country. Ghana is my thing. So you can sleep and you wake up. Ghana is somewhere in the room. Nani, do you regret moving to Ghana? Never. Even my children there, anybody who know me would say, we know she will never, they won't even ask me anymore. But do I like living Ghana? They know me for that. Nani, these questions that I'm asking you are from your grandchildren and your sons on YouTube. They ask me to ask you these questions that I'm asking you today. So we're gonna ask you so many questions. But I think, let me say, what has been your major challenge and what... In Ghana? Yeah, your major challenge of living in Ghana and what kept you moving? I think my, what can I say? My challenge is that I'm trying to build a house which I tell everyone, do not wait till you get this age. So building early when you come, the young people because it's available, work hard, build your house while you're young. My major challenge, again, is the building, but the fact that Ghanans will come and knock on your door any time, day or night for something, that one I don't like, you know, I might have to get to the point where, how can I explain that? If someone is working for you like you're building and the contractor is there, but then later on the worker will come and I go, mommy, grandma, I'm going, I have to go. I'm going to a funeral. I'll be back in a week's time or whatever. And then it's two weeks later they come. That part I don't like. I'm about being, if you're working, you work. I don't like the fact that funerals in Ghana is more important than life. That is, I want us to try to change that. That funerals are more important than life. In Ghana society, that's the way I feel. I don't know if it's true or not, but you spend more time at a funeral than you did when the person was ill, sick, whatever, you know. So that part is a challenge to me. Because in the States, once you're down a Friday, we bury you by next Wednesday and that's the end of that. We don't wait, within seven days, you and the ground are cremated. Grandma, I'm saying, somebody's saying that, what is your opinion on Africans and Black Americans being divided? I mean, like, we kind of divided. What is your opinion? And why do you think we don't like ourselves? You have more experience with Africans on the continent and Africans in the diaspora. There's somebody saying, I should ask you, what is your opinion on what divides Africans and African Americans? What divides, for me, let me go back. I see it like this. When the Africans, well, the first ones, I'm, okay, let's see it like that. My first experience with Africa, Africans, was in Atlanta in 1960, something. When I, it was a student named Kofiel Lusansa. He was a student at Georgia Tech, never, and I was a cashier. He came through the line, he had an accent, an accent where he was from. And he said, where cross? And I said, where cross where? He said, well, across the water. And he became a friend to me. He was the first African I ever met. Ended up meeting him. He was a physicist, you know, working on his PhD. He lives right here in Kermansi now. Meeting him enabled me to meet other Ghanans. It was only a few, maybe five, Ghanans in Atlanta in school during that time. And then after meeting him, we met people from Gambia, met people from Nigeria, and it just grew like that. And that's how the association came about. Africans, when they, in those days, when they came to America, they stayed by themselves. They lived in their own little environment. They lived in an apartment. They in their own area. They ate their own food. They never got involved with government issues like residential problems or you don't see them. They stayed by themselves. So we as African Americans, they don't like us. They stuck up. And number one, Americans give the Africans better jobs than they gave us. So you come into my country, you're getting better jobs. I'm not gonna like either. Same thing about the Mexican, Hispanic, everyone got better jobs except the African American. We're the first slaves that you brought there, but a white man keep dividing, started that. So you got better jobs, because you're gonna do the work I'm not gonna do. You African, you'll come to America, you're gonna clean the toilets, you're gonna do everything and get less money. Me, same color, I'm not gonna do that. Excuse the expression, that shit. You do it. You want to do it because that's more money than you had in Africa. So you'll come in and do all that. So now who's doing it? It's the Hispanic people. The Mexicans will come in or Hispanic, do what the African won't do now because you're learning that you should be paid more. So each race of people, each generation get less and less because different nationalities are coming in. But we were the first. So sometimes that's what's with us. We feel that you coming in, taking our jobs, and you do it for less money. I don't like you for doing that. So that's, we stay awake. And what is the way forward? How do you think African-Americans and Africans can come to America? We are better now. It's not the same way as it was. We know now you don't live on trees. In fact, people even use that word anymore. That's old, nobody says you live on trees. With people like you showing us true Africa and new Africa, we can see with social media, we are learning, you see. So those ideas and belief are moving. We are all learning. Africa and African-American and Caribbean. We are all learning, you see. So those are old mentality. If you have a phone, you know good and well, you can look and see Ghana. That we have houses, we have cars, we have churches, we have mosques. We have everything any other society and nation has. So that way of thinking depends on that person is who think that way is no education period. So you won't find that. And Africans are marrying African-Americans and vice versa, more now. Well, when they married in old days, if you weren't a professional man, regular Ghanaian would come. You didn't have a green card, so you married for your green card. So we're not doing that too much now. Now we're marrying for love or respect. But in those days, that's what it was. And you would marry somebody with no education in America. Some girl who didn't know nothing and you would marry her just for a green card. But that's not going on now. Now everybody's getting to know. And come back to Africa. And that's why we're here. And we'll find our message for Africans in the diaspora. If you have a message for them to come back to Africa, what would that message be? That message would be to not come to Ghana for free land and Ghana is not cheap. It's not coming to Ghana to get something. You're coming to Ghana to give something. This is a nation. We are here to help build the nation. We're not here to separate ourselves from Ghanaians. We're coming to merge ourselves. We're coming back home. And we're here to build and support the nation of Ghana. This will be your life home forever. Your children's children will know where they're from. We will not need DNA from other people. Your DNA will be right here on Ghana land, the nation of Ghana. Come step on mama, come step on mama Africa. Come pee on mama, come pee on mama Africa. Come and let yourself know that you are belongs to mother Africa and mama is waiting for you. And so are we. And we love you and you're welcome. Aqabah. Aqabah. Aqabah. I want to say thank you so much for spending time with me. Oh, don't mention it. And I appreciate your time.