‘I Had To Get Out’—Black Americans Are Building Wealth by Relocating to Africa

Nairobi feels like a city in fast-forward. A new expressway built a few years ago is helping to tame its once infamous gridlock, glass towers rise where low-rise tin-roofed settlements once stood, and international events like this month’s Kenya Bartender Week draw visitors from Lagos to London. Once dismissed as merely a launchpad for safaris, the city itself is emerging as a destination.

With Black unemployment spiking in the U.S., rising costs of living pushing milestones like homeownership and retirement further out of reach for many, and what one Black American expat, Shayna Conde, described as living with “a target on my back,” a generation of Black Americans is looking to Kenya, Ghana, and elsewhere in Africa not just as travel destinations or as a spiritual home but as places to build wealth and new lives.

How Black Americans Are Building Wealth Abroad

Singer and entrepreneur Kelis, known for her “Milkshake” anthem, has put a celebrity face on the trend this year by buying 300 acres in Kenya to build a sustainable farm and retreat. Meanwhile, high-profile events like this month’s celebrity-filled Invest Fest in Atlanta, along with thousands of Instagram and TikTok videos, are positioning Africa as a frontier for Black America’s dollars. Beyond the stars, though, retirees, remote workers, and entrepreneurs are quietly making the move or seeking out real estate and investments, with economic consequences on both sides of the Atlantic.

For Kio Wakesho Simmons, a U.S. Army veteran who now runs Traverze Culture, a relocation and medical tourism company in Nairobi, the choice was as much about survival as it was about opportunity. “I had constant anxiety as an entrepreneur… I had to get out,” she said. “It’s a breath of fresh air when you can just blend in.”

That sense of relief echoes across the Black diaspora. Kelis has been blunt about her reasons for joining the exodus of Black Americans this year. “I’ve got these beautiful Black kids… Here, they’re safe and respected,” she recently told the podcast “Earn Your Leisure.” Conde, co-founder of Black Babes Abroad, a community and platform that helps women of color move beyond the U.S., also noted that safety was a key reason for her leaving. “My wide-open-eyes moment was when I was in Europe and a car backfired in the middle of a big celebration and all the Americans hit the floor,” she said. “And all of the Black Americans went lower than everybody else.”

Conde added that moving to and investing in Africa is a response to something special for Black Americans. “There is a growing yearning that started maybe as a whisper, and it’s just kind of growing into this big, unavoidable calling back to our roots,” she said.

Kelis framed her move in both personal and generational terms: “It makes no sense for me to keep putting my hard-earned money in places that don’t make space for me. Here, I can actually see [my investments] grow and make an impact,” she said.

What’s Different in This Era’s Black Migration to Africa

The impulse to leave America for Africa isn’t new. In the 1920s, Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association promoted a “Back to Africa” movement and launched the Black Star Line to ferry African Americans to Liberia. By the mid-20th century, the movement had undergone a shift. The writer James Baldwin fled to Paris in 1948 with only $40, seeking freedom from what he expected if he stayed in America: “madness, violence, and suicide.” Today’s wave looks different—entrepreneurial, digital, and professional.

For all the sentiment about “coming home” or leaving the racial strife of the U.S. behind, relocation is still ultimately about logistics, Conde said. “If you don’t have a financial plan so that you have the space to pivot, that generally does not end well for anybody,” she said. Simmons agreed. “If you think you can come here making $800 a month, that’s not going to happen.” She and Conde advised prospective migrants to start by asking hard questions about their monthly income, visa eligibility, and how long they can stay on a tourist visa before committing, as they both suggested that people make a short trial visit before making a permanent move.

You can plan on the American dollar going a long way here, as well as in Ghana and other areas of the continent where Black Americans have been focusing their attention. Rent overall in Kenya is estimated at about 80% lower than in the U.S. Simmons pointed to medical costs as the biggest game-changer: a fibroid surgery quoted at $30,000 in the U.S. was done for about $1,100 in Nairobi, she said. Annual local health insurance costs just over $700 and covers inpatient, outpatient, and dental—categories typically split in the U.S.

But relocating is not a panacea. Simmons warned that police encounters—though less dangerous than in the U.S.—can still be frustrating. While violent crime rates are far lower in Nairobi and other major African cities than in the U.S., the Nairobi relocation specialists we spoke with caution against trying to live on a shoestring budget.

The Bottom Line

For a growing number of Black Americans, moving to Africa isn’t about escapism—it’s a financial strategy. Dollars stretch further on housing and health care, owning real estate and small businesses is more achievable, and visa pathways make extended stays workable if you plan for income, residency, and timelines.

“This is like the diaspora’s gold rush,” Kelis said, standing on her 300 acres in Naivasha, about 50 miles northwest of Nairobi. “Everybody needs to come here because there will be a point when it’s going to be unattainable.”