The Impact of “Ghana-Must-Go” Returnees on the Agricultural and Community Development of Ghana in the 1980s

Abstract

Although the mass expulsion of West African immigrants by Nigeria in 1983 has attracted major scholarly assessments, the aspect of the contributions of Ghanaian returnees to the agricultural and community development of their country during the period has remained largely neglected in the mainstream literature. This paper fills this critical gap in knowledge by interrogating the impact of the returnees on the Ghanaian society at a time of major food crises in the country. It relies heavily on the assessment of useful archival materials, especially extant newspaper reports collected at the Public Records and Archive Administration Department (PRAAD), Accra, Ghana to critically analyse the activities of the returnees in the areas of agricultural and community development. It argues and concluded that the contributions of the returnees assisted in no small measures in reducing the humanitarian crises and food scarcity associated with the mass expulsion, the unprecedented migrations from Nigeria, as well as the famine that afflicted Ghana in the 1980s.