Chinedu Madu. Olatunji Bolaji. Young Javits Frimpong. Another immigrant life stolen by American gun violence all in the search for greener pastures away from home.

We in the diaspora are very critical of Nigeria (rightfully so) due to the systemic challenges that cause so many to leave home (japa) for opportunities abroad. We leave assuming that wherever we are going is better than where we are coming from. This notion is inbuilt in most African immigrants. Whether it’s Europe, America, Australia, or Canada, we as Africans have developed a deep belief that getting the chance to leave our home countries for any one of the places mentioned above is a special opportunity of a lifetime- practically Heaven sent.

But tragic situations like the horrific murder of Javits Frimpong, a young Ghanaian teenager killed in New York City in October 2026 only one year after his arrival in America, must serve as a wake up call for us Africans in the diaspora to re-examine how we view home and how we view abroad.

Within the Nigerian community, there is this concept of “Nigeria happening to you,” a shorthand to explain how Nigeria’s weaknesses as a nation can ruin an individual’s life in the most arbitrary and cruel way. But what about when “America happens” to innocent African immigrants like Thomas Frimpong? A man who worked so hard to bring his son Javits to join him in the US for a better life only to have his child’s life stolen in an instant.

Whether it’s Chinedu Madu, a cab driver and family man shot and killed during a robbery in Chicago in 2015, or 77 year-old Olatunji Bolaji- killed while driving uber in Philadelphia in 2025, or the infamous case of Amadou Diallo- a Guinean student shot 19 times and killed walking home by New York City police in 1999, too many African immigrants have quietly lost their lives senselessly to gun violence in America.

The tragedy of young Javits has raised many important issues, most notably the bullying that many immigrant children face when coming to a new country. But the extreme gun violence in America remains a topic too many of us in the diaspora are unwilling to face. We are ready to justify japa; quick to list the myriad of problems that plague Nigeria. But when it comes to the very real problems plaguing American society, we are not willing to call them out. Why is this?

The United States of America is the self-proclaimed greatest, most powerful, richest nation on earth. And yet, it’s a nation where a child can easily get his or her hands on a firearm and take the life of another child. It’s a nation that competes with war zones for the number of deaths caused by firearms annually, particularly deaths of children. Plainly stated, the United States of America is a nation that has accepted and normalized gun violence like no other wealthy nation (or arguably any nation) on earth. It is a nation with very serious flaws. It is not the land of milk and honey it portrays itself to be. Not for immigrants and not even for Americans.

But we as Africans have been conditioned to be blind to the flaws of countries like America, while being hyper perceptive, if not overtly biased to the flaws of our own countries of descent.

If we think hard enough, we can trace this unwavering African belief in “abroad” as an intractable side effect of European colonization. In the process of stealing our wealth and people, destroying our language, culture and sense of self-worth, for more than 500 years Europeans and their descendants in the Americas, Australia, Canada and beyond have been convincing Africans that everything about them and where they live is good, while everything about Africa and where Africans live is bad.  And unfortunately we Africans continue to accept this falsehood.

This is not to say that our countries of origin are without problems. There are real forces that drive people to uproot themselves, separate from loved ones and communities and venture to far flung lands. Forces that sadly were orchestrated by the aforementioned 500+ year plunder of Africa in the first place.

But we can no longer continue to deceive ourselves that going abroad inherently gives us some special value that we lack by living in Africa. Our value is natural. It is God-given and should never be measured by how close we can get to where Caucasians live. If we Africans have inherent God-given value, so must our homeland of Africa- a true land of milk and honey that has just been pilfered and confused for the benefit of those who seek to exploit and harm it. In other words: home isn’t perfect but it has the potential to be perfect if we are willing to start looking at it differently.

The moment we start to look at ourselves and our home differently, perhaps we will be able to see more clearly what has been in front of us all along: abroad is not automatically better. Abroad has its own serious problems, just like home. Abroad is not a silver bullet to our problems. Abroad may seem like a dream but can actually turn into a nightmare. Abroad is not our true home.

We don’t know what course young Javits’s life would have taken if he had never come to America. But it’s unlikely he would have been killed by a gun if he had remained in Ghana. One of the most peaceful countries in Africa, Ghana is a beautiful country with beautiful people that values life over guns. America on the other hand, is a country that consistently places the right to own and access firearms over the lives of people.

The time is past due for Africans in the diaspora to wake up realize our inherent self-worth, re-embrace home and save ourselves from the dangers that may be waiting for us abroad.