Migration and Livelihoods in the Era of AIDS: a West African Focus with Emphasis on Ghana

Abstract

The spread of any infectious disease can be accelerated in a situation of large-scale migration, especially in the face of inadequate facilities to contain the disease. This observation has already been made in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. The spread of tuberculosis from South Africa to the towns and villages of the neighbouring countries in the fifties and sixties by mine workers who migrated to the South African mines is well documented (Packard 1989). More recently, from the late 70’s to the early 80’s, this pattern of disease spread has occurred again in Eastern and Central Africa with AIDS, fuelled by what Baldo and Cabral (1990) have termed Low Intensity Wars (LIW). Free movement of people, including prostitutes, to where business is profitable, has also been blamed as partly responsible for the high AIDS incidence in the exBritish colonies such as Uganda, Zambia and Tanzania (Konotey-Ahulu 1989). Despite this historical evidence, very little has been done by way of the study of the relationship between migration and AIDS in West Africa until recently (see Painter 1992). Migration and AIDS in West Africa The development of AIDS as a social problem in West Africa occurred several years later than in Eastern and Central Africa, around the mid-eighties. At present the governments in the sub-region have recognized it as a health threat. However, massive mobility of people, which is a common feature in the sub-region, has been observed to have historical pre-eminence over Eastern and Central Africa (Parkin, 1975). Two principal patterns of population movement have been established over the years. The first is the North-South movement within coastal countries of Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria, and the second is the movement over longer distance between the hinterland Sahelian countries in the north (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad) and the coastal countries to the south. The main feature of the migratory movements in West Africa is that they were male dominated. The migrants were more likely to be young unmarried males and if married, they were more likely to leave their wives behind. Women’s participation in the movement is increasingly becoming important in recent times but as yet their movement seems to be towards a few places in the sub-region (Anarfi 1990). Another feature is its periodic, seasonal nature. This massive, region-wide mobility is strongly linked to the effects of seasonality on the ability of rural dwellers in West Africa to earn the real income that their families need to survive and get ahead (Painter 1992: 3). A situation of seasonally limited opportunities and a scarcity, over a period of 7 to 8 months, related to the rainfall pattern of the Sahelian countries, prevails. Seasonal migration has therefore become a form of strategy to survive harsh conditions imposed by nature. According to Painter (1992) each year, from September through December, hundreds of thousands of men leave their homes in the Sahelian countries in the north and travel to countries along the coast. These men may remain in the coastal countries from four to eight months looking for money, before they return home. It is estimated that from 6 to 16 per cent of the total population of Niger, for example, may be affected each year by seasonal migration. Other studies have observed that men from the Sahelian countries participate in these yearly migrations from 10 to 15 years during their individual lifetimes (Painter 1992). Participating in the migration process has become more or less a way of life for rural households in Sahelian West Africa.