Rashad McCrorey

Rashad McCrorey (2 November 1979) is an American Entrepreneur and Journalist from Harlem, NY. McCrorey is the owner of Rashad McCrorey Entertainment LLC and Africa Cross Culture a tourism company that host trips to various countries throughout the continent of Africa. Currently McCrorey organizes tours in more than 10 African countries. McCrorey, a journalist for Modern Ghana Media has also contributed freelance articles in the Diaspora, Health, Lifestyle, and World News sections of many media outlets throughout the United States and Africa.

Rashad McCrorey was born November 2, 1979 in Harlem, New York, United States. The youngest of three children McCrorey grew up in the Polo Grounds Housing Projects in New York City. McCrorey attended Cardinal Hayes High School from 1994 – 1997 where he played Basketball and Football. McCrorey attended Dowling College from 1997 to 2002 where he attained Bachelors in Sociology/Anthropology and a minor in Oral Communications and played one year of basketball. Fall 2001 semester McCrorey earned dean’s list honors with a 4.0 semester. In 2011 McCrorey graduated with a Masters of Public Administration from City University of New York and in 2016, he graduated with a Masters in Theology from Drew University 2016.

Beginnings

January 5th, 2015 McCrorey made his first trip to the continent of Africa. The trip was part of the graduate school curriculum at Drew University where McCrorey was working on his Master's Degree in Theology. McCrorey's first trip to Africa was supposed to be to Cameroon but due to the 2014 Ebola Outbreak, the school canceled the trip. McCrorey understood why the school canceled the trip to Cameroon, but what he didn't understand was why they attempted to ban all travel to the entire continent of Africa. McCrorey with the help of two school professors cited that Africa was one entire continent with 54 different countries each with different cultures, history, languages and more. Eventually the school agreed to allow them to visit the African country of Ghana. Ghana's impact on McCrorey’s life led him to withdraw from school for one semester in order to return to Ghana. While in Ghana for the second time McCrorey came up with the idea to start a tourism company called Africa Cross Culture with the intentions of bringing other members of the African Diaspora to Ghana. McCrorey shared that he had a successful multi-year run as a New York City party promoter. McCrorey reflecting on his experience as a party promoter became confident that if he could organized 30 to 50 people every week to party in New York City, he could surely get 30 to 50 people a year to visit Africa. McCrorey During the fall of 2016 McCrorey began working on his first company GH Cross Culture. After graduating Drew University in December 2016, McCrorey organized his first trip to Ghana in February of 2017. December 2018 McCrorey organized his first trip to Egypt via his second company Egypt Cross-Culture

Covid-19

McCrorey hosted a group of four Americans in Ghana from March 3 to March 9, 2020 for Ghana's Independence day festivities. McCrorey who arrived in Ghana on February 27 purchased a one-way ticket because he had scheduled many events he wanted to attend and decided to keep his options open as to when he would return home. The events McCrorey planned to attend following his guest departure canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After a number of historic events including boarder closings, travel bans and government mandated lock downs enforced around the world, on March 23, 2020 McCrorey forced with the decision between immediately returning home to the United States and staying in Ghana indefinitely made the decision to stay in Ghana indefinitely. Multiple media outlets portrayed McCrorey to be in an unfortunate predicament. McCrorey insisted that his best option was to stay as he believed he had enough connections and resources throughout the country to warrant his decision to stay abroad. McCrorey believed returning home to the United States; specifically New York City was unsafe due to the spread of the virus in his hometown, and his chronic asthma pre-existing condition.

Via media coverage and contribution articles McCrorey shared his experience in Ghana during the COVID-19 crises as well as stories with the American public describing what precautions Ghanaian were taking to prevent the spread of the virus. McCrorey also expressed some anxiety because of what he perceived as xenophobic behavior. McCrorey explained that many of Ghana's early confirmed cases of COVID-19 were attached to foreign tourists visiting the country or Ghanaian who recently returned home from being abroad as the cause for the xenophobic thoughts of some Ghanaian. McCrorey out of fear of catching the virus moved out of the capital city of Accra to the Akuapem Mountains through a friend invitation and began living inside of the Aburi Botanical Gardens. Once arriving to Aburi Botanical Gardens McCrorey’s notoriety increased as he began sharing virtual tours of various Ghanaian landmarks in addition to Aburi Gardens including Elmina Slave Dungeon, Boti Waterfalls, Umbrella Rock, the Sacred Three Headed Palm Tree, Labadi Beach, the Greater Ashanti Region and more.

The African Dream

In-addition to virtual tours McCrorey contributed to a topic he called “The African Dream”. McCrorey considered the African Dream as a dream for African Americans who desired to leave America and move to Africa to people from various nationalities and regions around the world who desire to move to America to achieve what they call the American dream.

“We often hear stories of the American Dream. From the time of Ellis Island until this very day, we are used to hearing stories of foreigners from all around the world moving to America in search for a better life. However, little is spoken about the African Dream. The dream that many sons and daughters of the African Diaspora possess. A yearning, a calling to return home to the motherland. Some wanting to explore their African roots, some looking to escape systematic oppression, while others looking to explore nature and embrace Africa’s natural resources”.