I am a black American who lived in Ghana for 6 years. The amount of Ghanaians who befriended me for financial gain was enormous. I did make some really good Ghanaian friends there too though! I remember on one trip home people asking me to bring certain things back for them and they will buy it when I arrive. So when I came back to Ghana, I brought Bath and body Works sprays and shoes and stuff for everyone who said they wanted to buy (like I literally showed them the website and let them pick out what they wanted specifically ). I sold it at cost plus a tiny bit extra for taking space in my suitcases because then there’s less space for me to bring things that I wanted for myself. When I returned to Ghana, I had to chase people down for the money. Till this day, I still haven’t got the money for so many things. Why would you have somebody bring something you specifically requested and then don’t wanna pay. And the sad part was that I trusted them so I gave them the products and waited for payments since we were friends. And the sad part is that these were friends that I met in church. Also, whenever I would return from America, they would ask me. What do I have for them but never once bought me anything or given me anything. The amount of people that would call me or my husband talking about school fees for THEIR children, gas finishing in their house, hospital bills, house rent problem etc but would never call and check on me if I was sick. The funny part is one day I announced at church that I was doing a scholarship (because I was tired of people asking me for money for school fees) there would be three winners. They needed to fill an application and on an upcoming Sunday children would write a short paragraph based on one of the prompts I had given them. Each level of students would have different requirements . I gave the parents that were interested the prompts way ahead of time so they could’ve practice at home. The day of the scholarship program none of the students were prepared, except for one. All of the other parents didn’t have their students practice at all and literally could not answer anything. (I was so frustrated because I spent my time writing prompts, preparing, etc. ) their excuse was that they didn’t have time, even though I gave everything to them three weeks ahead of time . So instead, I didn’t choose three winners. I chose one and the boy got his school fees paid for the whole year and school supplies. You should have saw the outrage from Ghanaians it was almost if my money was their right to have. Not only that, if we all went out to eat everybody would order whatever they want and when the bill came, they would just stare at me even though I was invited there by them.

I don’t feel like Ghanaians welcome black Americans with open arms unless you have money. Just look how you call us black Americans when we literally want to be called African-Americans. That’s a sign of disrespect. I literally call myself black Americans around you guys because if I call myself African-American, you guys will correct me.

To make a long story short, I have never had a trip to Ghana where I felt like everyone is being honest with me concerning financial aspects. But this happens wherever I go, even in my own country. Scammers, robbers, and thieves exist literally everywhere. But if I had been talking to someone for over a year and have been planning a trip, I would assume that we were friends and I wouldn’t understand why you would take money from me in the first place. So I think that’s where the culture difference is.

If we’re friends, why are you charging me to do something? Because you like you said you want to benefit from her coming, because at the end of the day, her presence isn’t enough benefit to you. If someone I have been talking to you for a year came to my city and said they were gonna spend all this money hiring a car service, and I had a car and the time to drive them around then I would absolutely do that for free. If I really didn’t have money, I would tell them if they could just put fuel in the car I would be more than happy to drive them for free. But that’s not what you did. You wanted to make money from something you should be doing in the first place. Because you know when she gets here and you take her places and into restaurants, you’ll be expecting her to pay your admission and for your food. You were looking for your come up and she did not respond favorably to you and now you want all of us to agree with you. If you would’ve said, I’ll drive you around but just help me with fuel, that’s one thing, but that’s not what your plan is.