Exploring the Role of Trade and Migrations in Nigeria-Ghana Relations in the Pre-Colonial and Colonial Periods

Abstract

Long before Ghana and Nigeria became independent countries in 1957 and 1960 respectively, peoples of both countries have had rewarding contacts. These involved inter-group relations in the political, economic, religious, cultural, administrative and recreational fields of human endeavour. Of these facilitators of inter-group relations, the two most outstanding elements that defined their relations before and during the colonial period were trade and migrations. The basic theme of this paper is therefore to document the nature and form of this trade network facilitated largely by the Hausa’s and Yoruba’s of Nigeria and the Akan peoples of the Gold Coast during the period of this study; and how the booming trade contact and colonial economic policy motivated great inter-state migrations between the two countries during the colonial period. The paper further explores the various motivations for inter-state migrations between the two countries in the pre-colonial and colonial periods.

Key words: Trade, Migration, Intergroup relations, Nigeria, Gold Coast