‘Ghanaian first’: Nationality, Race and the Slippery Side of Belonging for Mixed-Race Ghanaians

Abstract

This article explores the multifaceted ways in which race impacts on processes of identification with the Ghanaian nation for mixed-race Ghanaians. Using a constructionist approach to identity, which highlights the agency of actors, the article underscores the shifting and racialising nature of national identity in transnational contexts. The article argues that whether they were born and raised in Ghana or they grew up in a Western country, mixed-race Ghanaians mainly identify as ‘Ghanaian first’. Their affiliation to Ghana stems both from growing up in the country and from being identified as black outsiders in countries of the white Western world. In both contexts, identifying as a Ghanaian is a source of pride and empowerment. However, their membership of the Ghanaian nation is often contested in their everyday life by the majority black-identified Ghanaian population, based on ethnoracial (non)authenticity premises. As such, mixed-race Ghanaian participants actively shape their Ghanaianness to justify their right to belong.