Hollywood actors Meagan Good and Jonathan Majors have been granted Guinean citizenship, tracing their ancestry to the West African nation via DNA testing. The pair received their new nationality in a private ceremony in Conakry on Friday. They are scheduled to tour the country's tourist sites this Sunday.
“We think that you are among the worthy sons and daughters of this Guinea. You represent our country, the red-yellow-green flag all over the world,” said Djiba Diakité, head of the president's cabinet.
Majors seemed destined for the ranks of Hollywood’s A-list before he was arrested following a 2023 altercation with his then-girlfriend. He had won critical accolades for his work in “Da 5 Bloods” and “Lovecraft Country” and secured years of future Marvel stardom with his role as Kang the Conqueror. However, after his conviction on assault and harassment charges, Marvel dropped him from future projects, and “Magazine Dreams,” a film once tipped to bring him an Oscar nomination, went on ice until last year.
Good, an actor herself, began dating Majors in 2023, and was a constant presence at his trial in New York. They were engaged in 2024, and wed last year in a small, impromptu ceremony as he promoted “Magazine Dreams.”
Guinea is not the first country to award citizenship to descendents of enslaved people. Last year, U.S. singer Ciara became one of the first public figures to become a citizen of Benin.
Ghana last year naturalized 524 African Americans, after President Nana Akufo-Addo invited them to “come home” in 2019, as part of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in North America in 1619.
Guinea has been ruled by junta leader Gen. Mamadi Doumbouya since a 2021 coup. Last month, he was declared the winner of the presidential election after clamping down on opposition and dissents, leaving him with no major opponents.
