‘Back Home | Ghana’ Celebrates the Rich Culture of the African Diaspora in VR

The African Diaspora covers a community of millions of people—dispersed around the globe, but connected by travel, music, and fashion. They’re descended from families from countries across Africa, speak countless languages, and represent nearly as many cultures.

Now, Meta Quest is proud to present a new three-part 3D 180 VR series, Back Home | Ghana, that shines a light on the African Diaspora. The series, which is now available on Oculus TV and Horizon Venues, paints a vivid picture of the impact the Diaspora has had on global culture, while also portraying numerous stories of African descendants returning to their ancestral homeland for one of the world’s most exciting and vibrant festivals.

For the last five years, the Afrochella Music Festival in Accra, Ghana, has been the gathering place of choice for the Diaspora. More than 35,000 people have returned to Africa for the two-day celebration of the continent’s food, music, art, and culture, with at least half of them travelling from the United States or the United Kingdom.

Afrochella has recently been rebranded as AfroFuture, but it’s retaining the same ambitious goal of shining the brightest light on Africa’s burgeoning Gen Z and Millennial creative talent.

With Back Home | Ghana, the filmmakers trained their cameras on numerous artists from Afrochella and shot in locations in and around Accra. Hosted by Jake Obeng-Bediako, the Global Youth Ambassador for Diaspora Affairs in the Office of the President, the series features three episodes: “The African Diaspora’s Global Economic and Cultural Impact,” “The African Diaspora Experience Today,” and “Afrofuturism.”

Meta Quest caught up with four of those involved in the making of Back Home | Ghana—Obeng-Bediako, Abdul Karim Abdullah, founder of AfroFuture, Del Titus Bawuah (founder of Web 3 Accra), and Kuukua Eshun ( film director, poet, writer, and founder of Filming as Woman)—about producing the series, what it meant to them, and why it’s important to share the stories of the African Diaspora. And we even learned why staying up late to listen to live Afrobeats and working on the film on the smallest amount of sleep was no impediment to putting one’s heart and soul into the project.

Jake Obeng-Bediako: I’ve been working in the cultural strategy space on developing strategic initiatives geared at amplifying Ghana’s cultural relevance in the larger global Black story. In my role as Youth Ambassador for Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the President, I’ve been instrumental in developing, delivering, marketing, and implementing projects like the Year of Return initiative that resulted in 1.2 million visitors.

Instagram has been key in showcasing my work and when Meta approached about this project, I considered it an honor and responsibility to be involved.

Abdul Karim Abdullah: Meta has been an important partner in our effort to showcase talent within the Diaspora, and over the past two years we have supported many young creators in Africa. So it made perfect sense to include those efforts in this project.

Obeng-Bediako: I relish opportunities to showcase the brilliance of Africa through the Ghanaian story. This was a special endeavor which I thoroughly enjoyed because it engaged me in ways I’m particularly passionate about. From being able to interview some of my favourite African artists backstage at Afrochella (now known as AfroFuture) to bonding off the set with the team and sharing my local knowledge and experiences, this project was fulfilling and purposeful.

Del Titus Bawuah: It was an extremely surreal experience because we’ve been working hard to create awareness around VR in Ghana, so being able to collaborate with Meta on telling our cultural stories through VR was a very fulfilling task.

Kuukua Eshun: As a filmmaker, I’m excited for the future of filmmaking through VR and beyond. I know that as the technology evolves, creatives must evolve with it.

Obeng-Bediako: I envision captivating and educating a global audience that’s curious to learn more about Ghana and, by extension, Africa. I want the project to provide an immersive experience that can only be rivalled by actually visiting Africa. And for those in the Diaspora that haven’t yet returned, I hope that this project inspires in them a deeper sense of their connection to Africa.

Eshun: I hope people can start to see the beauty, rawness and excellence of African creatives. We have so much to offer. Africa is filled with amazing talents that haven’t been discovered, so I hope this project opens conversations, doors, and more opportunities for them, both from and in Africa.

Obeng-Bediako: The Diaspora’s longstanding interest in Ghana has much to do with our history and role in the global Black narrative. From slavery, to colonialism, to the post-colonial era, Ghana (formerly known as the Gold Coast) has been a mecca and a place of high significance in the work of global Black historical icons like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Marcus Garvey, W.E.B Dubois, and Maya Angelou.

The Diaspora’s significant recent increase in engagement with Ghana is the result of a concerted effort by Ghana’s current leadership to develop innovative and engaging ways of supporting the global Black Diaspora to further connect with their local counterparts. In other words, a deliberate endeavor to reunite the global Black family. A significant way that’s been achieved is by injecting lifestyle and contemporary culture elements that have successfully shown the Diaspora youth in particular that Ghana is a viable place for them to live, visit, and invest themselves in.

Karim Abdullah: The Diaspora and people in Ghana are still in the get-to-know-each other phase, and although we share a complexion and history, our experiences of Blackness differ. So helping us learn from each other is the work AfroFuture prides itself on.

Titus Bawuah: New policies. The Year of Return initiative has been central to making it easier for the Diaspora to come back. And influencers’ continuous engagement and promotion of events in Ghana on instagram has also been key to creating interest globally.

Eshun: It’s beautiful to see the ongoing conversation and collaborations between the Diaspora and Ghanaian locals. It's a powerful movement that will eventually make history as we learn to build and create together in harmony. Projects like this clearly show that a change has come.

Obeng-Bediako: Music is a unifier and African music in particular expresses so much of our cultural values, ideas, and consciousness. AfroFuture does the brilliant job of understanding the zeitgeist of the day, and packaging our music in an accessible manner which brings the world to our shores to engage with it. I think that attending AfroFuture just once can be the crash course one needs to become an African music connoisseur.

Titus Bawuah: At its core, AfroFuture is being built by members of the Diaspora and locals who are tapping into the universal language of music and culture. As a genre, Afrobeats has captivated the world, and AfroFuture is attracting the world’s best Afrobeats artists every year.

Eshun: AfroFuture is so important right now. Fusing music, fashion, food, and culture and televising it to the world is truly powerful. And Africans have been told for so many years that we’re not good enough, and so we win the fight by knowing who we are as Africans and showing that to the world without dehumanizing anyone.

Obeng-Bediako: They already are and because of increased collaboration between the Diaspora and Africans living here, I can imagine African fashion, art and technology becoming the global mainstream.

Karim Abdullah: Africa has always gotten the short end of the stick, from colonialism to imperialism to authoritarianism. Its people have always had to innovate to survive, and as one in four people on Earth will be African by 2050, the Diaspora will have a lot to do with the future of innovation. Investing in our talent is the best bet anyone can make. But, it must come after we understand each other, and that is why this kind of storytelling is so important.

Eshun: I believe we are the future. Something new, fresh, and unexpectedly great, and something that’s rare when it comes to storytelling, art, fashion, and technology. That’s what the world needs now—something different, progressive, and rooted in Blackness.

Obeng-Bediako: People should experience African cultures both sensorially and intellectually, and VR is the closest possible technological substitute to an in-person experience as it transports a user into the setting to almost touch, feel, and sense the experience.

And for a country like Ghana that is aiming to share our art, music, and literature with the world, using VR and technology can help to promote our culture to a global audience.

Titus Bawuah: VR taps into a new demographic that experiences content very differently. That creates more opportunity for people all over the world to remotely experience things they never could otherwise. And that may make them want to visit in the future.

Obeng-Bediako: I remember waking up excited to go to the set, even though I only got four hours of sleep because I’d stayed at Afrochella until very late so that I didn’t miss the Burna Boy and Asake performances. But I still woke up excited, and that was all the confirmation I needed that this project was truly special to me.

Eshun: When I was getting interviewed, the director burst into tears. I felt such a powerful connection to the project and I knew it was going to be something very special.