Expulsion Orders
For some, this was the second go-round, a reprise of the upheaval
The scenes at the ports, palpable despair, teeming, almost primeval
When the land borders briefly opened, a brave few chose that route
A long, dangerous journey with opportunist predators to boot
You would think there would be sympathy for these returning wretched
Yet the provisional government called them "recalcitrant and hollow-headed"
You see, earlier on, most had simply voted with their feet
Foregoing chaos, they'd packed their bags and left the country
Now, exiled souls twice removed, this was their homecoming
Leaving in a hurry, running away with just what they could carry
Tough love from the authorities on both ends, no tears for aliens
And extra scrutiny at the border, "non-Ghanaians are not welcome"
Ghana must go is how the trauma is recorded in folk memory
The damage was done and, worse, it was all so unnecessary
But such is the fraught and bitter legacy of the expulsion orders
As goes the proverb, try not to die when you are surrounded by vultures
Anybody could have told the authorities in Lagos that is is impossible to evacuate 700,000 (their own estimated figure) under their own imposed stringent conditions, within the period of one week that they opened the land borders
— Talking Drums May 1985
Expulsion Orders, a playlist
A soundtrack for this note (spotify)
- Exodus by Bob Marley & the Wailers
- We trying to stay alive by Wyclef Jean
- Refugee Rolling by Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars
- The Exodus has Begun by Prince & the New Power Generation
- Get out of Town by Ella Fitzgerald
- Refugees by Gerard Musgrave
- Go Home by Gerry Mulligan & Ben Webster
- Pitche Mi by Youssou Ndour & Super Etoile de Dakar
stately and mournful from the excellent contemporaneous album, Immigrés
See previously Bags and Stamps
File under: Ghana, Nigeria, culture, immigration, displacement, exile, memory, Africa, history, politics, dictator, coup, loss, observation, perception, refugee, Things Fall Apart, Ghana must go, poetry, toli
Writing log: August 17, 2022
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