Michael B. Jordan became the sixth Black man to win Best Actor last night, taking home his first Oscar for playing twins Smoke and Stack in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. He thanked his mom, ran through the lineage (Poitier, Washington, Berry, Foxx, Whitaker, Smith), gave Coogler his flowers for betting on original work, then mentioned that his dad flew in from Ghana to be there, which Ghanaian Twitter took as a formal invitation to lose their minds.

By morning, he’d been renamed Michael Kwesi Jordan, the B had been reassigned to Boateng, and at least four Canva graphics were already claiming him as a national treasure. Meanwhile, the other camp was in the replies spelling “he is NOT Ghanaian” in all caps with three flag emojis. Both sides were confident, both were loud, and both were working with about 40% of the information. So here’s the other 60.

Michael A. Jordan, who goes by Tony, is African American, born and raised in South Central LA with family roots in Hope, Arkansas and Shreveport, Louisiana. He joined the Marines in 1974, got deep into Pan-Africanism, and eventually made Ghana his home. He lives in Accra full-time now.

MBJ himself still hasn’t made the trip yet. He said on The Culture Joint podcast in 2024 that he’s been trying to visit for years and something always comes up, but an Oscar win feels like a good and celebratory reason to finally book the ticket.

So no. Michael B. Jordan is not Ghanaian. His dad isn’t either. His dad just really likes it here, which, honestly, fair.

Congrats to MBJ on the Oscar. He still owes us a visit, though.

Written by: HQ