Photo credit, Mohamed Finando / Oxygen Africa
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- Author, Makuochi Okafor
- Role, BBC Africa
Movie star couple Meagan Good and Jonathan Majors traveled to Guinea, where the two Americans were granted citizenship after tracing their origins to the West African country through DNA testing.
Jonathan Majors, star of the films Creed and Ant-Man, said gaining citizenship would allow the couple to “bridge the gap” and bring together their “stories” as artists and members of the African diaspora.
“We just want to say thank you,” added Good, best known for the film Think Like a Man, before explaining that this was her first visit to Guinea.
The citizenship ceremony was organized by the Ministry of Culture and is part of other initiatives in the region to encourage people of African origin to reclaim their heritage and invest in the continent.
The event, a private cultural ceremony, took place on Friday at a tourist and cultural center, Gbassi Kolo.
Djiba Diakité, minister and chief of staff of the presidency, handed over the passports to the two actors on behalf of President Mamadi Doumbouya.
At his side stood General Amara Camara, minister and secretary general of the presidency.
Guests were treated to a series of traditional dance and music performances, including the djembe, a drum that attracts many foreigners to Guinea to learn its rhythms.
Good, 44, and Majors, 36, began dating in May 2023 and married last year.
They married after a tumultuous time in Majors’ life. In 2024, he was sentenced in the United States to probation for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, British choreographer Grace Jabbari. He was forced to complete a domestic violence intervention program for 52 weeks.
The actors landed at Conakry-Gbessia international airport early Friday morning and were greeted with great fanfare by officials and musicians.
While in Guinea, the couple plans to visit Boké, a coastal region that is home to historical sites linked to the slave trade. It is not yet known whether they intend to invest or settle in Guinea.
Photo credit, Mohamed Finando / Oxygen Africa
In recent years, several celebrities have acquired the nationality of African countries.
This phenomenon mainly started in 2019, when Ghana launched the “Year of Return”, inviting people of African origin to return to their home countries and invest there. One of the most high-profile stars to take the plunge is Stevie Wonder, in 2024.
Other notable examples include American singer Ciara, who took Beninese citizenship last year, and Hollywood actor Samuel L. Jackson, who obtained a Gabonese passport in 2020.
Guinea itself has long hosted activists and people from the African diaspora.
In the 1960s, South African singer Miriam Makeba and her husband, American civil rights activist and Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael, settled in Guinea.
Makeba was declared stateless for her opposition to apartheid and, after her marriage to Carmichael, who popularized the slogan “black power”, her US visa was revoked.
She was treated as an honorary Guinean citizen and cultural ambassador, while Carmichael, who had taken the name Kwame Ture, remained in Guinea even after their divorce, dying there in 1998.
Guinea has experienced political unrest in recent years, and under the junta that took power in 2021, the country has become less open to dissent.
Coup leader General Mamady Doumbouya restricted the media and suppressed protests.
The country recently returned to civilian rule following last month’s elections, which Doumbouya won with 87% of the vote.
Unlike other countries in the region that have recently experienced coups, Guinea has maintained its relations with Western governments, particularly France.
The country is rich in minerals, including bauxite, iron ore, diamonds, gold and uranium, but its population remains among the poorest in West Africa.
