Africans have always been willing to emigrate in search of a better life, and in the 1960s Ghana’s relatively prosperous economy attracted many immigrants from other West African territories, especially Nigeria. By 1970 there was a general feeling that the economy was being exploited by foreigners who were strongly established in the commercial sector and the government of Dr. Kofi Busia was eventually persuaded to expel them on short notice. By the mid-1970s, with Ghana’s economy in serious trouble, the flow of immigrants had reversed and Ghanaians were flocking to oil-rich Nigeria. In 1983, it was time for Nigerians to take revenge and up to a million Ghanaians were given three weeks to leave the country.

The main route from Nigeria to Ghana is along the Gulf of Guinea coast through the states of Benin (formerly Dahomey) and Togo. Migrants struggling to beat the deadline traveled along the coastal highway through Cotonou in Benin to reach Lomé in Togo and the border with Ghana. Here his progress stopped. The government of Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings closed the border and denied entry to returnees. Despite appeals from all parts of Ghana and from international agencies and governments, the border remained closed for more than two weeks as the crowds at the gate swelled to approximately half a million souls.

There was a lot of speculation as to why the government prevented the re-entry of its citizens. Perhaps the revolutionary regime of the time doubted the political loyalty of the hundreds of thousands of vigorous young men who had mostly left Ghana before Rawling’s two coups of June 4, 1979 and December 31, 1981. Nigeria was known to be more violent than Ghana, with far more gun crime. Who is to say what scale of political unrest or wave of violent crime might result from the mass influx of these people facing long-term unemployment?

Other people felt that regardless of the social problems they may bring, the returnees were their sons and daughters who could not be denied entry into the homeland. Among these were traditional rulers who had a pastoral concern for their people. By far the most powerful of these was Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, Asantehene, King of Ashanti, who walked 250 kilometers from his palace in Kumasi to the seat of national government at Osu Castle in Accra. Traveling by road, the Asantehene crossed the Pra River, a historical and symbolic gesture signifying war.

What the King of Ashanti told the young flight lieutenant was not reported at the time, but the border was opened three days before Nigeria’s deadline. The returnees piled into cocoa trucks and huge articulated vehicles and drove triumphantly through towns and villages to the cheers of huge crowds that gathered to welcome them home. Aid agencies that had pooled resources near the border expecting an urgent refugee situation found their services largely unused as the masses rapidly spread to their home cities and towns.

It may have surprised some observers that the returnees were greeted as heroes, as warriors returning from their country’s successful defense against an external aggressor, but that was how they were seen. In many ways they represented the cream of the nation’s youth: those with the energy and drive who, finding no livelihood at home, were prepared to pioneer a new life in a strange land. In a world where ‘life is war’, these were economic warriors. At least they had relieved their families of the burden of their upkeep for several years; at most they returned or brought much more than they had taken. They had suffered greatly at the hands of the governments and everyone was relieved to see them safe at home.