Explore the Future of African Tourism: How Diaspora Storytelling and Cultural Heritage are Shaping Travel Experiences

Imagine stepping onto Ghana’s shores and feeling a current of history, of roots, of family you never knew you had. Picture yourself in Senegal, joining a Sabar drum circle where every beat echoes your heartbeat. These are not vacations; they are homecomings. They are memory awakenings. They are the future of African tourism.

Learn How to Leverage Your Story through our Story To Asset Framework.

Across Europe, the Caribbean, the Americas, and even here in my home in Verona, the African diaspora continues to seek the roots that were forcibly severed. Today, Africa calls back—not as a distant memory, but as a living, breathing place where identity, culture, and connection are reborn.

It was this deep yearning that inspired Obehi Ewanfoh to launch the SANKOFA: Retracing My African Roots in 2025. Drawing on over a decade of experience in the hospitality industry in Verona, Italy, and insights from more than 1,000 in-depth interviews with members of the African diaspora on The Obehi Podcast, Obehi identified a crucial gap in the travel industry: the absence of a platform that honors and uplifts African and diaspora heritage through meaningful cultural exchange.

Fueled by these rich conversations and his enduring passion for reconnection, Obehi created SANKOFA, a visionary project designed to bridge continents, histories, and hearts through storytelling and immersive tourism experiences.

Insight: When Culture Becomes Catalyst

Let’s look at Ghana’s Year of Return. Over one million diaspora diasporans answered the call in 2019. They weren’t tourists, they were descendants seeking belonging. The results? A staggering $1.9 billion was injected into Ghana’s economy. More importantly, it planted seeds for something larger: Beyond the Return, a 10‑year vision where diaspora engagement fosters cultural education, investment, and partnership.

This is cultural tourism reimagined: diaspora communities are at the centre. They are investors, participants, innovators, and most importantly, they are recognised as family.

Embracing Indigenous Values

African tourism, rooted in Ubuntu and the Sankofa principle, goes far beyond surface travel. It becomes a platform for transformation:

• Sankofa: “go back and fetch it” calls diasporans to retrieve identity, language, and ancestry. Authentic experiences, such as naming ceremonies and visits to Cape Coast Castle, become acts of reclaiming purpose.
• Ubuntu: “I am because we are” invites travelers into a web of relationships. Tourists stop being passive observers and become participants in shared humanity.
• Harambee: “all pull together” offers a promise that tourism is not transactional but collaborative. Communities and diaspora co-create lodges, cultural centers, artisan hubs, and digital storytelling platforms.

These values are the blueprint for a tourism future that fosters deep bonds and equitable growth.

Diasporan Voices Shaping Tourism

Diasporans are not just coming home; they are building homecomings. Organizations like Birthright Africa provide African American youth with educational journeys to Ghana, forging purpose and identity.

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Travel Noire, a Black-owned travel platform, curates culturally resonant itineraries that spotlight African narratives. Their impact? Diasporans shift from tourists to storytellers, from consumers to co-creators.

This is Obehi Ewanfoh’s vision in action, realized through diaspora entrepreneurship, cross-border collaboration, and the Story to Asset Framework. It’s where your story becomes a business asset, and each trip begins a partnership.

Revitalising Local Cultural Ecosystems

Africa’s tourism success isn’t measured by guest count, it’s measured in community vitality. Look to Rwanda. The Rwanda Development Board channels revenue from eco-tours and gorilla trekking into schools, clinics, and community projects. In Morocco, cultural tourism supports conservation and artisan livelihoods.

In Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, youth are trained as guides, performers, and cultural ambassadors. Visits become opportunities to empower local heritage keepers. Diasporans support local artisans, celebrate festivals, and invest in education initiatives. Tourism becomes regenerative, equitable, and rooted in Afrofuturism, a future imagined by and for Africa and its diaspora.

This supports what Obehi explores in his documentary projects like Pan-Africanism: Testing Ideas on Reality, showcasing how we can live the dream of African unity in today’s Africa and how the diasporan engagement can amplify local impact and cultural preservation.

Technology: Unlocking Connection Beyond Distance

Where travel isn’t possible, tech fills the space. African Ancestry’s DNA heritage tools reunite generations. Tastemakers Africa’s app connects global diasporans with local guides, chefs, artists, and homestays. Virtual ancestral tours and digital storytelling platforms ensure the journey home transcends borders and time.

These tools also lay the foundation for diaspora travel cooperatives, mentorship networks, and legacy storytelling that continue long after the trip ends. They bring the Story to Asset Framework to life, empowering diaspora movables to engage meaningfully with heritage.

The most profound shift in African tourism is purpose. Diaspora travel is no longer escapism—it is education, empowerment, and exchange. It is about rebuilding fractured narratives, supporting cultural guardians, and co-writing a new legacy.

Governments, private sector partners, and community leaders across Africa are recognizing the diaspora as full collaborators.

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We see this in Sierra Leone’s heritage trail projects, Senegal’s cultural hubs, and Kenya’s eco-villages. Across the continent, the diaspora is embraced not as visitors, but as vital partners in cultural renaissance. This is the vision Obehi brings to life in the Story to Asset Framework, where stories become assets and connection becomes growth.

Turning Vision into Reality: Practical Pathways

1. Co‑created Cultural Centres
 Bring diaspora and community together to design museums, storytelling circles, and heritage villages, built around shared values.

2. Diaspora Travel Economies
 Incorporate diaspora-led tour operators into local tourism ecosystems. Promote fair revenue sharing, capacity building, and community investment.

3. Cultural-Homestay Programs
 Bridge households across continents via digital platforms, cultural exchange, and shared stays. Allow diasporans to eat, speak, and live alongside family.

4. Community Education Projects
 Diasporans support youth training in language revitalisation, craft preservation, and local storytelling. Trips include homegrown cultural experiences that participants can share globally.

5. Digital Storytelling Co‑ops
 Build platforms for diasporans and locals to share photos, film, oral histories, and music, ensuring stories become shared cultural assets.

Why It Matters: From Roots to Relevance

When we shift our lens from sightseeing to story-building, tourism becomes transformation. It becomes something we do together. It becomes part of a diasporic ecosystem that nurtures belonging, economic inclusion, and cultural flourishing.

This unity echoes Ubuntu. It embraces diaspora as agents of growth and heritage as living assets. It expands what it means to be African, globally. This approach reflects what Obehi has shown throughout his journey from his first book, Round My Mind, to his landmark Storytelling Mastery series, and 2015’s Pan‑Africanism: Testing Ideas on Reality.

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His decades-long work in Verona tourism, his documentaries, and the free resources at AClasses Media empower diaspora and African communities alike to collaborate, build, and strengthen. They make space for live events, deep learning about identity, and songs that connect hearts.

A Shared Journey Forward

Consider this your invitation, a call to own your story and join a movement.

• If you are diaspora, consider traveling not just to visit, but to invest in local crafts, sustainability, and heritage storytelling. Join programs like Birthright Africa or Travel Noire, or bring your own story to a cultural project.
• If you’re a community leader in Africa, invite diaspora voices into every stage of design, guiding, sustaining, and celebrating cultural tourism. Embrace Ubuntu and Harambee.
• Stay connected: explore Obehi’s Story to Asset Framework, attend his live events on AClasses.org, and tune in to The Obehi Podcast on YouTube and streaming platforms. Each episode is a guide for building cultural bridges rooted in memory, purpose, and shared growth.

Conclusion: A Conversation That Begins Today

African tourism is no longer about what we see; it is about who we become together. It is bridging oceans and hearts. It is reclaiming Sankofa, celebrating Ubuntu, and practicing Harambee. It is co-authoring a future where tourism heals, connects, and sustains.

And it invites you: Come as kin. Create with us. Build with us. Belong with us. From roots to relevance, this is just the beginning.

Learn How to Leverage Your Story through our Story To Asset Framework.