Return is dignity, not a luxury product

The modern world has learned to sell everything. It sells identity as a subscription, culture as an aesthetic, and belonging as a consumer choice. It should not surprise us that it has also learned to sell “home” back to the people it stole from. Today, for millions of descendants of enslaved Africans, return is often framed as a lifestyle upgrade, a retirement dream, a content niche, or a spiritual tourism package. But that framing is a lie, and the lie is expensive.

Return is not a luxury product. Return is dignity.

Dignity means the right to stand somewhere and not have to justify your presence. It means the ability to work without begging for permission. It means the right to build, to own, to inherit, to bury your dead, to raise your children, to participate, and to belong. It is not about comfort. It is about standing upright as a human being in relation to land, law, and community. When return is treated as something you “buy,” dignity becomes a commodity. And when dignity becomes a commodity, the poor and the ordinary are excluded by design.

That is what we are living through: a global system where return has been priced like beachfront real estate.

The price tag on belonging

Across many African states, the pathway to long-term residency and legal economic activity is structured around capital thresholds, investment permits, and proof-of-funds requirements that function like a gate. This is often defended as “economic prudence,” “national security,” or “investment promotion.” But for descendants of the enslaved, the moral logic collapses immediately.

We did not arrive in the Americas, Europe, or elsewhere as immigrants seeking opportunity. We arrived as stolen labor. Our displacement was not voluntary. It was engineered. It was foundational to the wealth of modern capitalism. And yet in the twenty-first century, the descendants of that theft are regularly told: If you want to come home, pay.

An economist looks at this and sees a familiar mechanism: rationing through price. When a good is scarce or politically sensitive, price becomes a filter. It selects who gets access. It shapes the demographic profile of who arrives. It reduces complexity into a single test: capital. Not character. Not commitment. Not ancestry. Not contribution. Capital.

The result is predictable. Return becomes accessible mostly to high-income professionals with foreign salaries, retirees with pensions, investors moving money across borders, and content creators with monetized audiences. Meanwhile, the ordinary Black family is effectively told that home is not for them.

Why dignity cannot be rented

A luxury product is something you can live without. Dignity is not. Without dignity, people do not merely suffer materially. They suffer existentially. They live as permanent outsiders, always negotiating their legitimacy.

When “return” is reduced to a transaction, it offers relocation without restoration. It offers scenery without sovereignty. It produces a class of perpetual guests: people who may live in Africa, spend in Africa, even love Africa, but remain administratively conditional, legally fragile, and politically excluded.

That is not dignity. That is tenancy.

The silent politics of “investment”

Investment-based immigration models smuggle in a belief about who deserves rights: those who bring money. But the diaspora is not only a pool of cash. It is a pool of skills, networks, cultural power, market access, and political leverage. Diaspora return can expand trade routes, strengthen entrepreneurship, and connect African economies to global Black consumer markets.

Reducing return to a single upfront transfer prioritizes short-term capital over long-term nation-building. A serious Pan-African project cannot accept a future where Black belonging is auctioned.

The moral contradiction

If African states can create special pathways for foreign investors, retirees, and expatriates, then the inability to create pathways for descendants of enslaved Africans is not a technical problem. It is a political choice.

What a dignity-based return looks like

If return is dignity, policy must reflect that. A dignity-based return model would include:

• A Right of Abode framework with clear, affordable permanent status.
• Work rights by default.
• A time-bound, transparent pathway to citizenship.
• Community integration as a pillar.
• Economic contribution measured over time, not upfront.
• African Union-level coordination.

Conclusion: stop selling home back to us

We are not asking to be tolerated. We are asking to belong. Return is dignity, not a luxury product. Any system that makes dignity purchasable will always exclude the people who need repair the most.

Home should not be auctioned. Home should be restored.

If you agree, support the campaign here: crdea.com/repat.