The Cultural Renaissance and Global Prominence of Accra | Dawn Dickson (S6 Clips)

[00:00:02] Now I consider myself a retired tech CEO with my mission personally to be a bridge between the DASPERA and Africa. And I feel like Ghana is the best landing and launch for expansion into Africa. So that's why I'm here. Amazing.

[00:00:30] I think I heard in one of the podcasts that it was always your goal to come to Africa or maybe even listen to Africa. I always knew my whole life, like even as a young child I felt connection to Africa. But of course Africa is a continent.

[00:00:43] So I had to figure out what country, what I go to, what aligns with my lifestyle, my goals and my career, you know, accessibility because I do have my family in the States. Can I visit them? I don't want to be too far.

[00:00:55] So all those things were factors and I started to just travel around Africa to feel it out. And so I traveled to several countries before coming to Ghana in 2019 for Year of the Return. And I felt very welcome.

[00:01:10] So the administration did a great job of getting the word out to us in America that Ghana is, you know, welcoming us. And I definitely felt really at home and I had never felt at home in Africa until I came to Ghana. Wow.

[00:01:27] So you were here during the Year of the Return period? I came for the Year of the Return. I just, because I didn't know where to go. Like I said Africa is a continent. There's so many countries to go to. But I said who wants me there?

[00:01:38] You know, I don't want to come force my way into a country or go to a country where there's nothing in place to really help us to integrate and assimilate. I don't want to just wing it.

[00:01:48] You know, I'm by myself, I'm an empty nester, my daughter is, she's almost 20. So I'm alone. So where can I come alone and try, you know, and be able to make it? So when they announced the Year of the Return and the mission to connect

[00:02:03] the aspirants to Ghana based on our roots, I said, okay, let me go see what Ghana has to offer because obviously they want me there. They're welcoming my people, black Americans there and they did a great job. Yeah.

[00:02:16] I mean, the Year of the Return period was such a phenomenal period. I mean everyone from, I mean Boris Kudjur, Niamh Campbell, Edwis Alba, you know, Anthony, there's so many people that came down. And, you know, just to see, I think maybe hundreds of thousands, even millions

[00:02:30] of tourists driving and also more importantly, you know, African Americans, you know, come home is just a phenomenal, phenomenal thing that took place as well. What kind of stood out to you the most when you came down to Ghana?

[00:02:47] Like what was the things that stood out to you the most? I know you mentioned friendliness and the warmness. What other areas of, what other things about Ghana like really stood out to you and really kind of appealed to you that makes you look like a little younger?

[00:02:59] I mean the people definitely are really amazing and that stands out. The warm welcome just, you know, and I was like, wow, they look like black people in America. You know, I mean obviously I'm not ignorant to the diversity of Africa and its people

[00:03:16] but it just felt very much like if we wouldn't have opened our mouth, we could have been in any American city as far as the way that we look, you know, or attire but the face. You know, we black Americans look like

[00:03:28] West Africans in many cases so I felt like, oh, I know somebody that looks like this guy, Poffy looks like, you know, Jerome, you know what I'm saying? So that stood out just to people and I mean of course the weather, I lived in Miami

[00:03:42] so I love warm weather so the weather was a big thing on my lifestyle chart so it's just beautiful weather. The food is delicious so any kind of food you want

[00:03:50] to get you can find it. I'm plant based so many countries I have challenges eating and finding food but I didn't have any problems finding food here and I love fresh vegetables and fruit so

[00:04:02] it's abundant so that was a thing and then I like that Ghana is, it's a small big city. You know, you get enough, there's enough to do, there's enough, you know, enough traffic please no more but it's not like Lagos. So it's like, you know, I spent a

[00:04:20] lot of time in Nigeria and I did enjoy many elements of Nigeria but Ghana is just like a more calm, safer, cleaner, chill Nigeria. Yeah, I like to call it, I like to call Lagos Ghana in our alternative universe because when you get there it's just different.

[00:04:41] Yes, but the things that I like about Lagos are still here but the things that I didn't like about Lagos I don't have to worry about. I mean as far as crime I have no concerns of my

[00:04:52] personal safety as a woman and then congestion as I said I don't want to spend my days in traffic you know if you live in Ghana and you time your days right you can't avoid much of the traffic

[00:05:05] you know if you think no when to move. Yeah, Lagos you're not avoiding it at any time of the day it's there. So you know I just when I thought about what country between maybe between

[00:05:15] Nigeria and Ghana, Ghana just really stood out and then my network I there's a very large population of Ghanians in the US and I've met many and so when I said I'm going to come to Ghana

[00:05:28] they just made some connections for me that really help open doors for me my American friends and it was very easy to tap in to the network here in Ghana and really start to establish myself.

[00:05:41] Yeah I mean Ghana it's I mean it's a small world I mean it's not particularly huge you know especially your Clarice it's not particularly huge city so I think once you get to know a few people who maybe movers and shakers that can kind of lead to

[00:05:54] mean some other key contacts within the city so I'm kind of not too surprised. It's quite interesting that you mentioned all of this I think with Lagos it's quite crazy because the population of Lagos is like the population of Ghana. The whole country.

[00:06:07] Yeah, the population of one city is the whole country yes yes that's perspective for sure. Yeah but in terms of traffic in Ghana especially during like the year returned or even beyond the return I mean that's something that the country doesn't need to work on.

[00:06:20] Just December in general is this crazy. Yeah I mean entrepreneurs solve problems and of course you're quite an accomplished entrepreneur I mean are there any I mean it's just off the cuff question here I didn't need kind of problems apart from traffic that you see Ghana

[00:06:32] could could need solving. Oh all the problems Ghana has comes down to your politicians. So we all know this we're not going to go into a political conversation but infrastructure is something that I believe countries should double down on Ghana especially in technology.

[00:06:49] So there's tons of opportunities in infrastructure and technology if those who control the money and the decisions and the contracts would be open to people outside of their immediate network. Yeah that's a PC way to put it. Yeah that's a good point right there.

[00:07:09] Okay I'm doing I want to double tap on a couple things that you mentioned and then we can go into like Africa and real estate.