Why countries like Ghana, Benin and Guinea are chasing African-American stars

For example, Africa’s oldest republic, Liberia, was founded in 1822 by freed black American slaves. After Ghana gained independence in 1957, a wave of black intellectuals and artists immigrated there from the United States. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali subsequently made high-profile visits to Ghana, while Guinea became the home of Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael.