Accra, Ghana… While most African Americans were simply looking forward to a tourist visit or the simple relocation of a beautiful home in the motherland of Africa some black American Muslims saw the return to Africa as a sign of returning to wealth, riches and the ability to provide other African Americans with opportunities that have been stolen from years past. The entrepreneurial story of African Americans in Africa is one that is far too little told. But there are a set of amazing African-American Muslims that are working hand in hand with local tribal and religious leaders to take back a piece of their heritage and claim it as a part of our future.
Utilizing the international networks available through the freedom Nation (freedommation.me) several black Muslim entrepreneurs have begun to tap into Africa’s natural resources in order to accelerate their growth and the growth of the black Muslim community as a whole. One such entrepreneurial black Muslim is used to getting in the trenches and literally spends his time digging through the dirt.
Mustafa Shahid, who is best known to our community for helping to bury our loved ones and ensure that the rights and duties that are incumbent on Muslims for the dead are carried out with expertise and precision, has now started to dig holes for another reason. Gold. But don’t think it an easy task. The process that many foreign Nationals of other countries have begun to invest in West Africa for is now being used by one of our own in order to extract this precious metal and bring it home to the United States.
With over 23 local employees on his staff and a set of personal right hands on loan from the grand Imam of Accra, Mustafa is exploiting a multitude of relationships and opportunities that stretch directly to Black Muslims. Through the numerous connections that our community has established with the tariqa tijania and the Cisse family that stretch back over 50 years in Kaolak Senegal, Mustafa has experienced first hand the benefit of working in a network that includes over 200 million Muslims worldwide and is led by what is un-arguably one of the top 10 most influential Muslim on the planet.
But behind his story is an even greater one. Local Atlanta Imam Ihsan Muhammad, remains one of the strongest links that the black Muslim community has in the United States to the Muslim leadership of West Africa. Having completed over 7 years in Senegal learning the Quran by heart he is revered throughout the West African Sufi community as one of the top students of the late Cheikh Hassan Cisse. That leverage and multiple marriages, joint children and students from our community into West Africa have produced a deep and extensive network of trust in order to facilitate those highly entrepreneurial black Muslims to follow their ventures into West Africa’s waters of opportunity.
As one of the board members of the Freedom Nation, Imam Ihsan Muhammad, utilizes those relationships to quietly facilitate others within the citizenry of the Freedom Nation to go after major opportunities throughout the world. included in that is a strong relationship with the leadership of the Northern and Sahara regions of Ghana.
The Northern and Southern Regions are the largest producers of Shea and Cocoa butter in the world. Recently the Freedom Nation has begun whole selling a high quality, hand made version of these products to the black owned businesses in the US. Using the Freedom Village Georgia as a distribution center, the Freedom Nation, is providing a core material at a fair price to many black entrepreneurs in the US.
The Freedom Nation is a member based independent economic development organization that is dedicated to creating environments of peace and prosperity for black Americans on a national and international scale. To learn more visit https://www.freedomnation.me/
