Content Warning: This section includes discussions of anti-Black racism and anti-gay bias.

When African countries like Ghana gained independence from European colonial powers in the 20th century, they were suddenly faced with a lot of new and very challenging questions. People and governments had to decide what they wanted their future to look like, what their personal and national identities would be, and how to understand their place in the world. That shift resulted in myriad perspectives on what a post-colonial African identity could or should be. European countries that had given up their governmental control of former African colonies did not want to relinquish social control; they wanted to ensure that Europe was still considered the best, most sophisticated place in the world. 

For some people from Africa, newfound independence meant the ability to prove that they were able to live up to European standards and that African nations deserved to be taken seriously. Those who were able to study in Europe received some educational opportunities that were in short supply in Africa in earlier decades and centuries. Africans who traveled to Europe to study or work then had to reckon with whether being in Europe changed them, and whether it changed their relationship to their home countries.