President of the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation, Ambassador Harold Doley Jr., has said a state-of-the-art museum complex honouring the legacy of world-renown black intellectual and civil rights pioneer, Dr. W.E.B Du Bois, is an important symbolic monument that will spur the return of Africans in the Diaspora.

Doley, who spoke to The Guardian after the landmark signing of the contract in New York City, where the U.S. foundation is headquartered, on Monday, September 20, said after the museum’s construction, those who come to Ghana will also be looking forward to going to other African countries.

He said: “People that come to Ghana, as their port of entry, would be looking to go to other countries based on their Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and country and tribal men. In other words, Ghana is not the final destination.”

He said going to one country would not be complete, as “Africa is 1/7th of the landmass of the world. Going to one country is not really complete. You will need to see other countries, cultures, different foods, local languages, local music, and all that makes each country unique.”

He added: “History can be unfair, and it’s too often unfair to the black man. When Mansa Musa traveled to Mecca in 1324, he was bragging. He brought all those people. He brought all those people for protection, and as well, luxury. But he had a purpose. And his purpose was to send a message to basically the known world that if you want to train, if you want to do business, you come to Mali and Mansa also was a king.”

President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, had said: “The museum will provide in Ghana yet another important monument to the collective struggle of the African peoples to get their rightful place in this world.”

The Du Bois Memorial Centre in Accra where Dr. Du Bois and his wife, Shirley Graham Du Bois, are buried opened to the public in 1985. But in recent years, it had required additional upkeep and maintenance.

In 2019, Akufo-Addo invited the African Diaspora to follow the footsteps of Du Bois by making Africa their home and contributing to the continent’s development through the government’s ‘Year of Return’ and ‘Beyond the Return’ campaigns.