Michael Jai White thought he was attending someone else’s ceremony in Ghana — until the Akwamu royal family called him forward and gave him a new name.
ByBernadette Giacomazzo
November 12, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Michael Jai White told the One54 podcast that discovering his Ghanaian roots felt liberating because “slavery wasn’t the beginning of my lineup.”
- After his son researched their ancestry, White visited Ghana, where the Akwamu royal family unexpectedly welcomed him into its ranks and gave him the name Nana Akoto.
- The actor and former schoolteacher sees the honor as a responsibility to serve and hopes to use his professional connections to support education in Ghana.
Michael Jai White has spent decades playing larger-than-life characters, but discovering his Ghanaian ancestry gave the action star something Hollywood never could: a new understanding of where his story began.
During an appearance on the One54 podcast, the Spawn actor opened up about tracing his family’s roots to Ghana, an experience that challenged how he understood his identity as a Black American. White explained that he’d spent years identifying his family’s origins as South Carolina and Louisiana without questioning how much history existed before that.
“Think of the freedom that is just to know that … your beginning was not a slave,” White said. “I think that frees you and links you to something deeper.”
White revealed that his son initially researched the family’s ancestry, helping establish their connection to Ghana. But visiting the West African country made that discovery personal.
“I used to say, I don’t give a damn. I am proud of being a Black American because we’re the strongest of the strong,” he recalled. “I don’t need no African connection.”
That perspective changed once he experienced the country firsthand.
“I felt liberated in knowing … slavery wasn’t the beginning of my lineup,” he explained.
The trip also came with an unexpected development: White was welcomed into the Akwamu royal family and given the name Nana Akoto.
White said he traveled to Ghana with his family alongside celebrities including Boris Kodjoe, Anthony Anderson, and Djimon Hounsou. He initially expected to attend a ceremony honoring business executive Bozoma Saint John’s installation into the royal family.
Instead, he found himself being called forward.
“Something they said sounded like my name and everybody’s looking at me,” White recalled. “I get up … and they … inducted me into the royal family.”
The actor admitted that he initially struggled to process what was happening.
“I felt like I was pranked at first,” he said.
But the experience quickly became serious, particularly when he realized the title carried expectations beyond ceremonial recognition.
“It’s not about a thing about praising you,” White explained. “To me, it’s like now I got to do something. It’s a responsibility.”
White, who worked as a schoolteacher before becoming an actor, said he hopes to use his professional connections to support educational initiatives in Ghana.
“This is about service,” he said. “Life is about service. And when you realize that, it really puts things in perspective.”
The conversation also explored White’s martial arts career, including his groundbreaking portrayal of Spawn, his work on Black Dynamite, and his recent reunion with Tyler Perry in Netflix‘s Why Did I Get Married Again?
White previously discussed how returning to the franchise nearly two decades after the original film gave him a different perspective on relationships and parenting.
