Michaela Coel is planning to build a house in Ghana.
The 'I Will Destroy You' actress was born in London but both of her parents hail from the West African nation and she now hopes to erect a property in her the village where her father grew up after falling in love with the country on her first visit and feeling an instant connection to her heritage.
She told Vogue magazine: "I'd been to Africa before - Kenya and Uganda - but when I came here I was really seeing people who looked like me.
"A friend of mine was with me, and he remembers us getting off the plane and me walking around as if I knew where I was going.
"'I remember looking at all the kids playing and it hit me, like, Wow, this could've been me and I think I would have really enjoyed that.
"Yes, there are a lot of sad things; poverty, unemployment, struggle. There's also a lot of peace, friendliness. There's a lack of anxiety."
She added of Ghana: "Coming here, you do feel something magical."
Her dad has since moved back to Ghana and Michaela spent six months living in the country's capital city, Accra, last year. She's now also hoping to buy an apartment there.
She went on to talk about her parents' huge decision to emigrate to the UK, saying being in Ghana helped her understand them better. She said: "I started to imagine my parents as people, not parents, and what a crazy life it must have been to emigrate to England. Imagine you’re a smart, intelligent man like my dad, but you are just seen as someone who cleans. You face this glass ceiling. And so I have to thank him for everything he did, because he made me who I am."
Vogue's November 2022 issue is available on newsstands nationwide on October 18.
