Ghana Must Go: Rename The Bag Or Remember The Lesson?

The Global Afterlife of a Crisis

THE “Ghana Must Go bag” is now sold from London street markets to Asian export hubs, often marketed simply as “migration luggage” or “woven utility carrier.” Its global journey mirrors a paradox: Africa’s most visible migration symbol emerged from Africa’s least structured migration policy decade.

A Name Frozen in Time

The name survived not because it remained politically relevant but because it became linguistic habit, market taxonomy, and cultural metaphor. It outlived governments, diplomatic cables, and border queues. Yet its permanence raises questions for historians and sociologists: should collective memory preserve the label, or has the label become a casual monument to trauma?

Decolonising the Narrative, Not the Name

Migration scholars argue that the conversation should not focus solely on renaming the bag but on renaming the lesson. The real legacy is not the slogan—it is the systemic failure that allowed mass undocumented migration to fester without regional planning until public anger ignited policy by megaphone.

Should the Name Be Dropped?

The question is valid, but it is incomplete without context. The deeper question is whether Nigeria and Ghana have built migration systems strong enough to prevent another crisis being named after pain. The bag does not need erasure—it needs historical restoration. Whether the name is retired or retained, the event should never again be remembered as a punchline rather than a warning.

Final Thought

The bag’s story teaches that:

• Unity without systems breeds crisis,

• Retaliation without diplomacy breeds stereotypes,

• And memory without context breeds ignorance.

Nigeria and Ghana no longer need slogans that expel—they need policies that protect movement, not punish it.