Meagan Good and Jonathan Majors obtain Guinean citizenship after DNA ancestry checks

Husband and spouse film stars Meagan Good and Jonathan Majors have travelled to Guinea, the place they’ve been granted citizenship after tracing their ancestry to the West African nation via DNA testing.

Majors, a star of Creed and Ant-Man, mentioned turning into residents would permit the couple to “bridg[e] the hole” and convey collectively their tales as entertainers and members of the African diaspora.

“We simply wish to say thanks a lot,” added Good, finest identified for the movie Assume Like a Man, who mentioned it was her first go to to Guinea.

Their citizenship ceremony was just like different initiatives within the area to encourage individuals of African descent to reclaim their heritage and spend money on the continent.

The occasion – a non-public cultural ceremony organised by the ministry of tradition – befell at a vacationer and cultural centre, Gbassi Kolo, on Friday.

Djiba Diakité, minister and chief of employees of the presidency, offered the passports to the 2 actors on behalf of President Mamadi Doumbouya, saying: “We each imagine that you’re among the many worthy little kids of Guinea to signify our nation and the purple and inexperienced flag all through the world.”

Friends had been handled to a sequence of conventional dance and music performances, together with on the djembe – a drum that pulls many foreigners to Guinea to be taught its rhythms.

Requested about what their long-terms plans had been in Guinea, the couple informed the BBC by e-mail:

“We might completely see ourselves having a house right here and spending significant time in Guinea. This isn’t a fleeting connection – it is one thing we see as long-term and evolving.”

Good, 44, and Majors, 36, started relationship in Could 2023 and tied the knot final 12 months.

They married following a turbulent interval in Majors’ life. In 2024, he was sentenced within the US to probation for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, British choreographer Grace Jabbari. He was mandated to finish a 52-week home violence intervention programme.

The actors landed at Conakry’s Gbessia Worldwide Airport within the early hours of Friday morning and had been welcomed with nice fanfare by officers and musicians.

Throughout their keep in Guinea, the pair are scheduled to tour Boké, a coastal area with historic slave commerce websites. It’s not clear in the event that they plan to spend money on or transfer to Guinea.

In recent times, a number of celebrities have taken up citizenships of nations in Africa.

It largely started in 2019 when Ghana launched “The Yr of Return”, inviting these with African heritage to come back dwelling and make investments. One of the vital outstanding stars to take action was Stevie Surprise in 2024.

Different notable examples have been US singer Ciara, who took Beninese citizenship final 12 months, and Hollywood actor Samuel L Jackson, who acquired a Gabonese passport in 2020.

Guinea itself has an extended historical past of welcoming activists and other people from the African diaspora.

Within the Nineteen Sixties, South African singer Miriam Makeba and her husband, US civil rights activist and Black Panther chief Stokely Carmichael, moved to Guinea.

Makeba had been made stateless for her opposition to apartheid and after her marriage to Carmichael, who popularised the slogan “black energy”, her US visa was revoked.

She was handled as an honorary Guinean citizen and cultural ambassador, whereas Carmichael, who took the identify Kwame Ture, remained in Guinea even after their divorce, dying there in 1998.

Guinea has expertise political turmoil lately – and beneath the junta that seized energy in 2021 the nation has turn out to be much less open to dissent.

Coup chief Gen Mamady Doumbouya restricted the media and suppressed protests.

The nation has not too long ago returned to civilian rule following elections final month, received by Doumbouya with 87% of the vote.

Not like different nations within the area which have skilled latest coups, Guinea has maintained relations with Western governments, significantly France.

The nation is wealthy in minerals, together with bauxite, iron ore, diamonds, gold and uranium, but its individuals stay among the many poorest in West Africa.