ABSTRACT

The continent of Africa has more than 54 countries with diverse geography, culture, economy, and history. Owing to this, it is difficult if not impossible to chart the routes of African migration and places of destinations. Even if we try, since society is in constant motion and change, today’s route and destination might not be true for tomorrow. It is with this understanding that the route and destination of migration in contemporary Africa should be considered. It is also worth noting that the causes of African migration, within and outside of the continent, are far more intricate than the linear interpretation associated with economic inequalities. Prior to colonialism, the rise and fall of empires, long-distance trade (the slave trade can serve us as an excellent instance in illuminating the role of external impulses in reorienting trade routes, to say the least), transhuman lifestyle, and external impulses such as Muslim-Arab and European traders influenced patterns of migration within Africa and to other parts of the world. Under colonial rule, faster modes of communication were launched, and yet artificially created

African states with arbitrarily delineated boundaries also came into existence. As a consequence, while colonialist-regulated male-dominated labor migration for the sole purpose of profit was introduced, customary movement of people was restricted and reoriented. The caravan trade routes that crisscrossed the continent were redirected from the interior to the coast and hitherto unknown urban centers evolved and the coast became the destination of migrants at the expense of indigenous African towns in the interior. Africans also left their continent for Europe and the Americas as dock workers, sailors, students, and soldiers. In the latter instance, hundreds of thousands of African soldiers partook in World War I and World War II.