STEVIE WONDER GRANTED GHANAIAN CITIZENSHIP

Ghana has granted citizenship to music legend Stevie Wonder.

President Nana Akufo-Addo handed a citizenship certificate and passport to the US-born singer-songwriter at a 13 May ceremony held at the presidential palace in Accra, the Ghanaian capital. Wonder also turned 74 that day.

During the event, the president hailed Wonder as an icon whose exploits have gone beyond the music stage to humanitarian works that have positively impacted the African diaspora.

The singer-songwriter joins 252 individuals from the United States and the Caribbean who have been granted citizenship since 2019. That year, the West African state ramped up efforts to attract diaspora-born Africans to move there under the ‘Year of Return’ initiative to mark 400 years since ships carried Africans stolen from the continent to be sold into slavery in the Americas.