Legendary American singer and songwriter, Stevie Wonder, is now officially a Ghanaian citizen after he took an oath of allegiance administered by President Nana Akufo-Addo.
Wonder who was granted citizenship of the West African country on Monday which marked his 74th birthday, is one among a number of American celebrities who have decided to trace their family roots back to Africa.
While granting the icon the country’s citizenship with a certificate at a ceremony in the presidential palace, Akufo-Addo said it was a big honour to the country and Africa that such greats were coming back to the black continent.
He was also presented with a birthday cake with a Ghanaian flag iced on top.
After the ceremony, Wonder told the BBC that gaining Ghanaian nationality on his birthday was an “amazing thing” moment for him and his family.
The superstar was born and bred in the US state of Michigan but has long had an affinity for Ghana.
As far back as 1975, Wonder had openly expressed a desire to quit music and move to Ghana, a country he believed his ancestral lineage could be traced there while in the 1990s, he made frequent trips to the country as well as headlining a Ghanaian music festival where he again expressed a desire to set up a home there.
Wonder had, in an interview, confessed that his love affair with Ghana was ignited by the people he met whilst there including the late Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings, who in the 1990s hosted him at the presidential residence.
“I remember the late President Rawlings, who allowed me to be a co-pilot on a flight,” Wonder had said.
“I was able to fly with him from one end of Ghana to the other end. The north to the south, and it was amazing.”
Aside Stevie Wonder, other American-African celebrities who took up Ghanaian citizenship included writer, W E B Du Bois, who moved to Ghana and was buried there in 1963, while Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali all paid high-profile visits to the country to reconnect with their African roots.g