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For some Ghanaian parents living abroad, the dream of eventually returning home is colliding with an uncomfortable reality: their children may have no intention of following them.
Three parents currently selling houses they built in Ghana say their decisions are not driven by financial hardship, debt, divorce or failed businesses. Instead, they are selling because their adult children, whom they once imagined would inherit or live in those homes, have made it clear that they do not see Ghana as home.
Two of the families moved abroad with their children when they were young. Now over 18, the children have reportedly expressed little or no interest in living in Ghana — and, in some cases, even visiting.
A third family faces a similar situation, with the children now living in the United Kingdom and showing no desire to relocate to Ghana or spend extended periods there.
For the parents, the disappointment is profound.
They had made deliberate efforts to maintain their children's connection to Ghana. Holidays were spent visiting family. Flights were paid for, children were taken to their parents' hometowns and introduced to cousins and grandparents.
But those experiences did not necessarily translate into a lasting sense of belonging.
For children raised primarily in countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada or the Netherlands, their social and cultural identities are often shaped by the places where they spend their formative years. Their schools, friendships, language, humour, food, music and understanding of everyday life are rooted there.
Ghana may consequently become the country of their parents rather than a country they personally regard as home.
For some parents, the consequences become apparent only when their children reach adulthood.
The differences can extend beyond questions of where to live. Parents may find themselves struggling with changing attitudes towards authority, independence, relationships, gender and identity. Some experience conflicts with teenagers over behaviour and boundaries that would have been handled differently in Ghana.
Yet these tensions do not necessarily mean that children are rejecting their parents or deliberately abandoning their heritage.
Rather, they may simply reflect the environment in which the children were raised.
A Ghanaian child who grows up entirely in another country can develop a perfectly natural attachment to that country. Their parents may continue to feel deeply connected to Ghana because it is where they were raised, but that emotional connection cannot automatically be transferred to their children.
This has left some parents reconsidering what they thought they were building for the next generation.
For years, constructing a house in Ghana has been regarded by many members of the diaspora as an investment, a retirement plan and a legacy for their children. But if those children have no intention of returning, the property can eventually become an asset with no clear purpose.
Selling it may therefore be less about abandoning Ghana than accepting a change in family circumstances.
The experience also raises a broader question for African parents raising children abroad: Can cultural identity be preserved through holidays and occasional visits alone?
Agyapong argues that maintaining a connection to Ghana requires more than periodic trips.
“Two weeks in December every other year builds a memory, not an identity.”
He suggests that parents who want their children to develop a strong sense of belonging to Ghana may need to establish that connection much earlier, including through extended stays or schooling in the country.
According to this view, belonging is created through ordinary life — friendships, school, family relationships, language and familiarity with a neighbourhood — rather than through occasional visits.
But for families who have already raised their children abroad, the options may be more limited.
By adulthood, children may already have established careers, friendships, relationships and social identities in another country. Asking them to relocate to Ghana can therefore become less a question of returning home and more a negotiation over whether they are willing to move somewhere they have never considered home.
For the parents selling their houses, the decision is ultimately about confronting that reality.
The houses may have been built with love, sacrifice and hopes for the future. But a house cannot create belonging by itself.
And for some Ghanaian parents in the diaspora, the painful lesson is that while they carried Ghana with them when they moved abroad, their children may have built their own sense of home somewhere else.
By Chris-Vincent Agyapong
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