Iconic American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder has officially become a citizen of Ghana.
Wonder was granted Ghanaian citizenship by President Nana Akufo-Addo on Monday, which incidentally was the US music legend’s 74th birthday.
“This is it, congratulations!” Nana Akufo-Addo told an excited Wonder, handing the multiple Grammy award winner a certificate at a ceremony in the presidential palace where he was also presented with a birthday cake with a Ghanaian flag iced on top.
In an interview with the BBC, Wonder said that gaining Ghanaian nationality on his birthday was an “amazing thing.”
The superstar was born and bred in the US state of Michigan but has long had an affinity for Ghana – a West African nation thousands of miles from home.
In 1975, with a string of hit albums behind him, Wonder openly expressed a desire to quit music and move to Ghana. He believed his ancestral lineage could be traced there, reports say.
Wonder stuck with singing and stayed stateside, but after headlining a Ghanaian music festival in the 1990s, he again expressed a desire to set up home there.
In a footage posted online, Wonder said, “Since a little boy, I always believed in my heart that there was nothing impossible… And for years, since about 1972, I’ve talked about coming to Ghana.”
“The truth is: I’m committed to, as now a Ghanaian citizen, being a part of fulfilling the dream that we’ve had for so many years, of bringing people of Africa (and) those of the diaspora – in the United States, the Caribbean — all of the people together. Because as I’ve said, and I’ve said for many years: the only way the world will come together is if we unite as a united people of the world.”
The US music star also told the BBC that one of these encounters was with late Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings, who in the 1990s hosted him at the presidential residence.
