IIRC the blacks going back to the motherland happened in the late 1970s inspired by the miniseries Roots. A friend of mine was one of those people. He was convinced that the low key racism in Canada was holding him back and he couldn't get a job as a chemist in spite of having a BSc. He was married to a white woman from a good family and didn't complain about a lot of his treatment by the local honkies other than his inability to get the job he wanted.Hunt wrote: ↑Ape+lust wrote: ↑ American blacks idealize Africa, they yearn for it. But you couldn't pay them enough money to live there. They're Americans, as out of place in Africa as any white American, and that really fucks with their heads. So, Africa is best as a promised land they'll never see, like Wakanda.
As I recall, there was an episode of Wonders of the African World, which Henry Louis Gates appeared in in 1999 where he recounts a group of African American immigrants to some West African nation (I'd have to watch it again to say which) back in the 60s who threw all their passports into the ocean, and then a few days later were all searching the shore trying to find them again. Pretty amusing and sooo true. Often what you imagine in your mind is dismantled rapidly by reality. Few raised in 1st world conditions can take 3rd world conditions for very long. Not saying America is the land of milk and honey, particularly for black people; I know it isn't.
After seeing Roots and hearing about the back to Africa thing that was going on he decided to go over and thought that because of his education he could get a good job, either in the government or teaching at university level. I questioned him how well he would fit in there, being Canadian by culture and having a white wife but he was pretty sure that he would be welcomed with wide open arms. So he packed up, sold what they had and headed over.
I got a post card from him a few months later and without going into detail said he had returned to Canada. I expect he had a quite an eye opening experience.