ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to isolate historically the motives for interregional migration in the continent, to note the nature of studies which have been made, and to identify areas for future research. Within the framework of centralized and non-centralized states, migration in post-eighth-century Africa was essentially induced by trade, population pressure and regional economic disparities, the continuous fission and fusion of states, and the Islamization process. Employing multivariate statistical methods Beals, Levy and Moses on Ghana, Hirst on Tanzania, Riddell on Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Harvey on the chiefdoms of Sierra Leone, have also emphasized the importance of economic factors in African interregional migration. The friction of distance and age/sex differentials are also important variables in African interregional migration. Probably one of the most extensive multivariate studies on interregional migration patterns in Africa is that on Ghana.
