Husband and spouse film stars Meagan Good and Jonathan Majors have travelled to Guinea, the place the US couple are on account of be granted citizenship after tracing their ancestry to the West African nation via DNA testing.
“We’re simply completely satisfied to be right here,” stated Good, greatest recognized for the movie Assume Like a Man, and who went on to clarify that it was her first go to to Guinea.
Majors, a star of Creed and Ant-Man, added: “I’m excited to satisfy the folks and go across the city with my spouse.”
Their citizenship ceremony has been organised by the ministry of tradition – and is just like different initiatives within the area to encourage folks of African descent to reclaim their heritage and spend money on the continent.
The occasion – a personal cultural ceremony – is to happen at a brand new vacationer backyard on the outskirts of the capital, Conakry in a while Friday.
Good, 44, and Majors, 36, started courting in Could 2023 and tied the knot final yr.
They married following a turbulent interval in Majors’ life. In 2024, he was sentenced within the US to probation for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, British choreographer Grace Jabbari. He was mandated to finish a 52-week home violence intervention programme.
The actors landed at Conakry’s Gbessia Worldwide Airport within the early hours of Friday morning and had been welcomed with nice fanfare by officers and musicians.
Throughout their keep in Guinea, the pair are scheduled to tour Boké, a coastal area with historic slave commerce websites. It isn’t clear in the event that they plan to spend money on or transfer to Guinea.
Lately, a number of celebrities have taken up citizenships of nations in Africa.
It largely started in 2019 when Ghana launched “The 12 months of Return”, inviting these with African heritage to come back house and make investments. Some of the distinguished stars to take action was Stevie Marvel in 2024.
Different notable examples have been US singer Ciara, who took Beninese citizenship final yr, and Hollywood actor Samuel L Jackson, who acquired a Gabonese passport in 2020.
Guinea itself has an extended historical past of welcoming activists and folks from the African diaspora.
Within the Sixties, South African singer Miriam Makeba and her husband, US civil rights activist and Black Panther chief Stokely Carmichael, moved to Guinea.
Makeba had been made stateless for her opposition to apartheid and after her marriage to Carmichael, who popularised the slogan “black energy”, her US visa was revoked.
She was handled as an honorary Guinean citizen and cultural ambassador, whereas Carmichael, who took the title Kwame Ture, remained in Guinea even after their divorce, dying there in 1998.
Guinea has expertise political turmoil lately – and underneath the junta that seized energy in 2021 the nation has turn out to be much less open to dissent.
Coup chief Gen Mamady Doumbouya restricted the media and suppressed protests.
The nation has lately returned to civilian rule following elections final month, gained by Doumbouya with 87% of the vote.
Not like different nations within the area which have skilled latest coups, Guinea has maintained relations with Western governments, notably France.
The nation is wealthy in minerals, together with bauxite, iron ore, diamonds, gold and uranium, but its folks stay among the many poorest in West Africa.
