Jack and Jill of America's Ghana Trip into turned a Ghana Homecoming
Updated: Aug 3
At a Glance
55+ travelers - moms, dads, and Jack and Jill scholars
Cape Coast Slave Dungeon - Door of Return ceremony honoring ancestors
75+ dolls donated to girls in Cape Coast through Baby Like Me Doll Day
Accra High School - African Roots Travel School for a Day Program
African STEM Academy (Mamprobi Basic 4 School) founded by the Jack and Jill Brooklyn Chapter
Ghana Family Day -The group participated in a traditional naming ceremony and a spent time learning the traditions in the compound of a GA Family.
Afrobeats Studio Tour members wrote, produced, and recorded an original song
Trip curated by African Roots Travel
CAPE COAST, Ghana. The sun was still low over the Atlantic when more than 55 members of Jack and Jill of America's Mid-Atlantic Region gathered outside the Cape Coast Slave Jack and Jill of America's Ghana Trip into turned a Ghana HomecomingGA Mashie Twins Yam Fest: A Joyful Celebration of Heritage, Unity, and Culture in JamestownDungeon, standing quietly in a place where history presses in from every wall. Moms, dads, and Jack and Jill scholars some as young as elementary school, others heading off to college in the fall had crossed an ocean to get here. None of them were quite prepared for what it would feel like to stand in front of the Door of No Return.
Centuries ago, enslaved Africans were marched through that door in chains, out onto ships, and away from everything they knew. On this day, the group did something those ancestors never got the chance to do: they walked back through it, together, as free people
A Door That Opens Both Ways
The ceremony at the Door of Return was quiet at first the kind of quiet that comes when a group of people are all feeling the same thing at once. Then, one by one, families stepped through, some holding hands, some in tears, all of them carrying the weight of a history that belongs to them.
It wasn't a somber ending. It was a celebration. Elders in the group spoke of ancestors who never got to make the journey home.
Parents watched their children cross the threshold and understood, maybe for the first time, what it means to inherit both a wound and a legacy. For a group built around raising the next generation of Black leaders, there was no more fitting place to begin the trip than here honoring the people whose survival made this very journey possible.
Baby Like Me Doll Day.
From the dungeon, the group carried that same spirit of honoring identity into the streets of Cape Coast, where they participated in The Baby Like Me Doll Program. The program was started by African Roots Travel to promote positive self esteem and appreciation of black beauty.
The Jack and Jill Mid-Atlantic Region came with suitcases that packed more than 75 Beautiful Black Dolls. Each doll chosen to reflect the girls own skin tone, hair texture, and features. For a lot of little girls, it was the first time they'd held a black doll that looked like them. Watching a child's face light up over something as simple as a doll with the right skin tone is the kind of moment that doesn't need much explanation, it's self-esteem, delivered by hand, one gift at a time. It was a small act with an outsized impact: a reminder to a new generation of Ghanaian girls that beauty comes in their own image.
"Creating memories for these girls is a everylasting memorie they will never forget" — Joshua Fynnrberl, Head of Operations @ African Roots Travel.
View the official Jack and Jill America Mid Atlantic Chapter Baby LIke Me Doll Day.
A Day as Ghanaian Students
African Roots Travel's School Day Tour immerses students in the living history and culture of Ghana through a guided educational experience designed for youth groups, high schools, and chapters. This tour recently welcomed a Jack and Jill of America chapter alongside scholars from Accra High School, where the group was greeted by the headmistress, who led a welcome orientation before scholars joined Accra High School students in classes, shared lunch together in the student hall, and closed the day with a lively student fashion show. Educators within the group, including Dr. Pia Anderson Duncan, Criminal Justice Professor at North Carolina Central University, and Kevin Granger of Clover School District, were among the many chaperones who facilitated classroom learning sessions, enriching the exchange with hands-on academic guidance. This experience is part of ART's broader mission: connecting the diaspora to the roots of the Motherland through meaningful, education-first travel.
Black Dolls For Black Girls
Small Hands, Big Ideas
The group made their way to the African STEM Academy, a Jack and Jill Brooklyn Program center housed at Mamprobi Basic 4 School that's been quietly building a generation of young Ghanaian engineers, coders, and scientists. Jack and Jill members paired off with the students there for a hands-on group STEM project, the kind that has everyone, visitors and hosts alike hunched over a table, arguing good-naturedly about whose idea should go first.
What caught many members off guard wasn't the circuitry or the science. It was learning that the center itself was born out of one of their own sister chapters, the Jack and Jill Brooklyn Chapter. The Brooklyn Chapter helped found the program in 2023 during their visit to Ghana with African Roots Travel. For scholars who'd flown thousands of miles from home, there was something almost dizzying about realizing that Jack and Jill had already been here, already invested in this same classroom, long before they'd ever booked their tickets. It turned the visit into something more than an activity on the itinerary, it was proof of a thread connecting chapters, generations, and continents, all pulling in the same direction.
The Afrobeats Studio Tour: A Sound Rooted in Ghana
If the slave dungeon taught the group where they came from, the recording studio showed them where that story is headed. At a local music studio, members sat down for a crash course in Ghanaian music history from traditional rhythms, to the golden era of highlife, to the Afrobeats and hiplife sounds now topping charts around the world.
Then came the fun part. Members paired up to write, direct, and produce an original song from scratch laying down vocals, building out instrumentals, working the boards like a real production team. There was nothing polished or rehearsed about it; it was families and teenagers figuring it out together, laughing through the mistakes, and walking away with a song and a memory that was entirely their own.
Months in the Making
None of it happened by accident. Behind every doll donated, every classroom shared, and every step through the Door of Return was months of quiet planning back home. The trip was curated by African Roots Travel Maurice Cheetham and Joshua Fynnrberl, Jack and Jill of America's Mid Atlantic Recording Secretary, Dr. Pia Anderson Duncan.
That groundwork showed. What could have been a standard sightseeing tour instead unfolded like something closer to a pilgrimage each stop building on the last, each experience deliberately chosen to connect history, identity, and service. For a group of 55-plus families, that kind of planning is easy to overlook in the moment, but it's the reason the trip felt less like a vacation and more like it was built specifically for them.
What They Carried Home
By the time the group boarded their flights back to the United States, they were carrying a lot more than souvenirs.
They carried the memory of a door they walked back through together to honor the ancestors sacrifice in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
The image of a little girl's face lighting up over a Black doll.
A day at Accra High School shared with fellow students and parents, by the end of the day, didn't feel like strangers at all.
A STEM classroom built by a sister chapter years before they arrived.
A recording studio session where they used team work and industry to create their official Jack and Jill Homecoming Theme Song.
For Jack and Jill of America's Mid-Atlantic Region, this trip was never just about visiting Ghana. It was about giving 55-plus families , parents and scholars alike a chance to stand in their history, give back to a community not their own, and come home changed. Somewhere between the dungeon walls and the recording studio, that's exactly what happened.
Feeling the Pull to Ghana? Bring Your Group Home
Ghana is more than a destination seen on a screen, it is a place where history, culture, identity, and community come alive. African Roots Travel creates customized heritage and educational journeys for youth groups, schools, churches, community organizations, and cultural associations seeking a meaningful connection to Ghana.
Our group experiences can include:
Cultural immersion throughout Accra’s historic neighborhoods, vibrant markets, communities, and cultural landmarks
Guided visits to Cape Coast Castle, Elmina Castle, Assin Manso, and other important sites connected to the transatlantic African diaspora
Educational exchanges with Ghanaian students, schools, community leaders, and local organizations
Service-learning and community engagement activities designed around your group’s mission
Traditional naming ceremonies, drumming, dancing, storytelling, local cuisine, and other authentic cultural experiences
Customized day tours and multi-city programs for first-time visitors and returning members of the African diaspora
Experienced, on-the-ground guides who provide the history, cultural context, and local perspective that standard itineraries often miss
Whether you are planning a student heritage tour, youth leadership experience, educational exchange, church mission, family journey, or organizational retreat, African Roots Travel will design a program around your group’s goals, ages, budget, and preferred travel dates.
Give Your Youth More Than a Trip, Give Them a Connection
Invite your students and members to experience Ghana’s history, culture, innovation, and community firsthand. Visit our website learn more about African Roots Travel, or scan the QR code below to begin planning a customized Ghana heritage journey for your school, youth group, or organization.
Scan the QR code to request a group consultation and start planning your journey to Ghana.
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About the Author
Maurice Cheetham is a living on the ground in Accra for the past 8 years, bringing a dual perspective to every story one foot rooted in the diaspora experience, the other planted firmly in daily Ghanaian life. From breaking news and politics to fashion, music, food, and the everyday culture that doesn't always make international headlines, Maurice covers Ghana the way only someone actually living it can: with context, nuance, and real proximity to the people and places behind the stories.
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