Many people, both men and women, will tell any expat living in Ghana for several years that they think they were born in the wrong place; ‘I am really English or American,’ they insist. This feeling translates into a strong desire to leave Ghana at the earliest opportunity and find a way to travel to the utopia they called aborokyiri. At the same time, they display strong ties to their family, clan and tribe, expressing a determination to help their relatives trapped in Ghana in any way they can. The resolution of this apparent paradox is a suitable topic for exploration in fiction.

For several decades, European countries have been preoccupied with immigration from their former colonies and other less prosperous corners of the developing world. It must be difficult for many people born in the West to understand the compulsion of Africans and Asians to leave their homes and families for a lonely life in a strange land. As time goes on, of course, the loneliness and strangeness lessen as large minority populations come together, but this only adds to many of the concerns of the indigenous majority. Some of those with long ancestral roots suspect that the newcomers are importing a new wave of crime. While most immigrants try to keep a low profile by living within the law, some more interested in rapid economic progress are tempted to take a shortcut to personal fortune by joining an ethnic group that has found a way quick to earn money.

Each immigrant community brings its own criminal element; the Italians have long exported their mafia and the Chinese their triads. West Africa has yet to produce anything quite so sinister, but Ghana, along with Nigeria and a few other neighbors, has become a transit point for South American cocaine and Asian heroin destined for UK and other European markets. Kumasi has the largest market in West Africa, and it is not surprising that some of its traders have been attracted by the new export trade.

Most Ghanaian immigrants in Europe do not engage in criminal activities, nor do they make a large fortune through legitimate means. Many, however, manage to acquire enough wealth to return to a comfortable life at home in Ghana and/or to build houses or start businesses for relatives left behind. In this way they fulfill their obligations to their extended families and help the economic development of their homeland.

Many of the concerns about mass immigration focus on the importation of exotic religions with strong social restrictions. People in Asia, in particular, are strongly inclined to preserve their traditional beliefs and practices and resist integration with the majority population. Ghanaians in Britain are not to blame in this regard. Most come from an essentially Christian background and are eager to integrate into the culture of their former colonial masters. Back in Ghana, the ethos of the clan or tribe is often at odds with the interests of the nation state, but in exile these tensions are subsumed into a common identity.