From “aliens Compliance Order” To “ghana Must Go”. A Legal And International Commercial Law Perspective On Xenophobia, Governance, And Africa’s Integration Agenda

The resurgence of xenophobic tensions in South Africa raises difficult but necessary questions concerning governance, migration management, economic inequality, institutional capacity, and Africa’s broader continental integration agenda under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

In 1969, Ghana, under Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia, implemented the Aliens Compliance Order, resulting in the expulsion of many undocumented West Africans, particularly Nigerians (“Nigeria Must Go”). Approximately fourteen years later, in 1983, Nigeria, under President Shehu Shagari, expelled undocumented immigrants, largely Ghanaians, in what became historically associated with the phrase “Ghana Must Go.”

Two sovereign African states. Two major expulsions. Two politically consequential moments. Yet neither produced a durable long-term solution to the structural concerns that triggered them. More sustainable progress only began emerging later through stronger institutions, improved regional cooperation, expanding economic participation, and more structured legal and commercial engagement across West Africa.

History should therefore caution us against confusing xenophobia with governance, or public frustration with coherent state policy.

South Africa today faces legitimate structural pressures, including inequality, unemployment, crime, and uneven economic participation. However, from both a governance and legal-policy perspective, those realities cannot be sustainably resolved through hostility toward fellow Africans. In many cases, xenophobic tensions emerge less as root causes and more as downstream symptoms of institutional weakness, declining public confidence, uneven economic inclusion, and insufficient state capacity.

Liberia offered a similar lesson during the 1990s civil war period. Despite Ghana being comparatively more institutionally and infrastructurally developed at the time, many Black Africans were casually labeled “damn foreigners,” while lighter-skinned foreign communities were often socially normalized differently. Yet when Liberia descended into prolonged instability, thousands sought refuge across West Africa, including in Ghana, where they were largely received with dignity and humanitarian accommodation. ECOMOG forces, significantly supported by Ghana and Nigeria, also played major roles in restoring regional stability.

South Africa itself did not overcome apartheid in isolation. African states contributed politically, diplomatically, economically, and strategically to that struggle over decades. That historical reality should remain relevant within contemporary African policy discourse.

As part of my law school research in International Commercial Law, particularly my LL.M. research concerning AfCFTA implementation challenges, I examined institutional readiness and technology gaps across selected African jurisdictions. One of the broader observations emerging from that research was that while South Africa retains important technological advantages in certain sectors, countries such as Ghana are making significant advances institutionally within the continental integration framework. There are now several African states emerging seriously within the broader architecture of African economic integration.

From an international commercial law perspective, AfCFTA is not merely a tariff-reduction instrument. It is fundamentally a rules-based continental integration framework requiring legal harmonization, institutional coordination, trade facilitation, customs modernization, regulatory predictability, dispute resolution mechanisms, investment confidence, and structured approaches to cross-border commercial participation.

Those objectives cannot function effectively where institutional credibility weakens and social tensions begin replacing lawful regulatory systems. Continental integration ultimately depends not only on economic ambition, but on institutional legitimacy, governance maturity, regulatory coherence, and public confidence in state capacity.

Africa’s aspirations under AfCFTA are legitimate and achievable. However, meaningful continental integration cannot coexist sustainably with normalized xenophobia, institutional fragility, or historical amnesia. Long-term prosperity will depend on accountable governance, stronger institutions, economic inclusion, legal predictability, and serious implementation of regional frameworks capable of managing migration, commerce, and integration in a lawful, strategic, and humane manner.

That is the real conversation Africa must have.

Author:
Dr. Michael Buadoo, Ph.D., LL.M.
International Commercial Law Practitioner, Technology Strategist & Oversight, Policy & Governance.