descendants from the Americas in order that they settle there, and so that they return to make the country the new home to many descendants of the Ghanaian diaspora – though not all are of Ghanaian descent. Accordingly, as reported by Valerie Papaya Mann, president of the African American Association of Ghana, thousands of African Americans are already now living in Ghana, at least for part of the year. To encourage migration or visits by the descendants of enslaved Africans from the Americas, Ghana decided in 2005 to offer them a special visa and grant them Ghanaian passports. The history of African Americans in Ghana goes back to individuals such as American civil rights activist and writer W. E. B. Du Bois, who settled in Ghana in the last years of his life and is buried in the capital Accra. Since then, other African Americans who are descended from slaves imported from areas within the present-day jurisdiction of Ghana and neighboring states have applied for permanent resident status in Ghana. As of 2015, the number of African-American residents has been estimated at around 3,000 people, a large portion of whom live in Accra. Country of birth of residents in Ghana According to the Ghana Statistics Service 375,000 of the Ghana resident population were born outside Ghana, representing 2.5% of the total Ghana resident population. In 2010 Census, European-born population was 14,295 in which some of them could be children of Ghanaians living in Europe. See also Illegal immigration in Ghana References External links Ghana Immigration Service Demographics of Ghana Society of Ghana