Ghana Beyond the Return: Heritage, Culture and a New Era of African Travel

Aug 9
4 min read

Ghana has become one of Africa’s most recognisable destinations for travellers from the global African diaspora. Over the past several years, the country has positioned itself not simply as somewhere to visit, but as a place to reconnect — with history, culture and a contemporary African identity that extends far beyond the traditional tourist experience.

Much of that international attention accelerated with the Year of Return in 2019, which marked 400 years since the arrival of the first recorded enslaved Africans in colonial Virginia. Ghana invited people of African descent around the world to visit, reconnect with the continent and explore the historical links created by the transatlantic slave trade.

The campaign became much bigger than a single year. It helped establish Ghana as a major destination for diaspora travel and was followed by the Beyond the Return initiative. Today, the country is developing that identity further through the Black Star Experience, bringing tourism together with culture, music, food, fashion, heritage and the creative industries.

Accra: The Energy of Contemporary Ghana

For many visitors, the journey begins in Accra. Ghana’s capital is expanding quickly, and its appeal comes partly from the contrast between its different worlds.

There are restaurants, galleries, independent fashion labels, cafés and nightlife alongside traditional markets, neighbourhood businesses and the rhythms of everyday city life. Areas such as Osu, Labone, Cantonments and East Legon each present different versions of the capital, while places such as Makola Market reveal another side of Accra entirely.

Music is central to the city’s identity. Ghana’s contribution to highlife sits alongside Afrobeats, hiplife, gospel and an increasingly international entertainment industry. During the December season in particular, concerts, festivals and events draw visitors from across the diaspora.

But Accra should not be reduced to nightlife. Its creative community — designers, photographers, artists, musicians and entrepreneurs — is increasingly part of the reason people are interested in the city. Contemporary Ghana is being presented not only through its heritage, but through what a younger generation is creating now.

Cape Coast and Elmina: Confronting the Past

Travelling west from Accra changes the character of the journey.

Cape Coast and Elmina contain some of the most significant surviving sites associated with the transatlantic slave trade. Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle once played central roles in the imprisonment and forced transportation of Africans across the Atlantic.

For many visitors, particularly those of African descent, walking through these spaces can be one of the most difficult and meaningful experiences of travelling through Ghana.

The dungeons, courtyards and passages are physical reminders that the history of slavery was not abstract. People were held in these buildings before being transported across the Atlantic, often never to see the continent again.

These sites deserve time and respect. They are not simply historical attractions or backgrounds for photographs, but places of memory whose histories continue to connect Africa with communities throughout the Caribbean, the Americas and Europe.

Ghana Beyond Its History

Yet Ghana should not be experienced only through the history of slavery.

Close to Cape Coast, Kakum National Park introduces visitors to tropical rainforest and one of the country's best-known canopy walks. Further west, Ghana’s coastline continues through fishing communities, beaches and smaller destinations that receive far less international attention than Accra.

Travelling inland opens another chapter.

Kumasi remains one of the most important centres of Ashanti history and culture. The city provides an opportunity to understand a kingdom whose political institutions, craftsmanship and traditions remain deeply influential in Ghanaian life.

Markets, kente weaving, gold craftsmanship and royal traditions connect visitors with histories that existed long before colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. That distinction matters: African heritage cannot be understood only through what was taken from the continent.

December in Ghana — and the Cost of Popularity

Ghana’s success in attracting diaspora travellers has created its own challenges.

December has developed into an unofficial international season in Accra. Visitors arrive for Christmas, New Year celebrations, concerts, festivals and reunions, creating an atmosphere that has helped make the city one of Africa’s most talked-about end-of-year destinations.

But popularity has a price.

Flights and accommodation can become considerably more expensive during peak periods, while some of Accra’s most fashionable restaurants, events and nightlife venues are priced for an increasingly affluent international audience.

For travellers who want to experience Ghana without the intensity or expense of December, visiting at another point in the year can offer a very different perspective. The country does not disappear when the festivals end, and neither does its cultural life.

Travelling Beyond the Diaspora Bubble

The success of Ghana’s diaspora tourism also creates an interesting challenge: how to encourage visitors to engage with the country beyond the spaces specifically designed for them.

There is enormous value in the sense of connection Ghana has created. For someone whose family history was disrupted by slavery, being explicitly welcomed back to the continent can carry significance that ordinary tourism cannot reproduce.

But Ghana is not simply a symbolic ancestral destination. More than 30 million people live their everyday lives there, and the country has its own economic pressures, political debates, inequalities and ambitions.

Travelling beyond the most internationally visible parts of Accra can therefore provide a more complete experience. Local restaurants, regional cities, cultural institutions and smaller businesses allow visitors to encounter Ghana as a country rather than simply as an idea of Africa.

A Journey of Return — and Discovery

Perhaps Ghana’s greatest tourism achievement has been its ability to turn history into a conversation about the present and future.

The Year of Return created an invitation. What has followed is more complicated and potentially more interesting: relationships between Ghana and the African diaspora that increasingly involve investment, relocation, culture, creative collaboration and repeated travel rather than a single symbolic visit.

For first-time visitors, Accra, Cape Coast and Kumasi provide three very different windows into the country — contemporary urban Ghana, the painful history connecting Africa with its diaspora, and cultural traditions whose roots reach much further back.

And there is still much more beyond them.