Ghana: Contextualising Coping Mechanisms of Refugees at the Bujumbura Refugee Camp

Ghana is traditionally known as a hospitable country and, has throughout its post-independence era from 1957 periodically hosted thousands of people who are either fleeing famine or war. Since 1990, however, Ghana has experienced one of the most sustained and largest refugee inflows as a result of the multiple conflicts occurring in the West Africa sub-region. The largest of these groups are the Liberians, whose horrific war experiences during their 8 years civil war from 1989 to 1997 initially resulted in their sojourn to Ghana. Although Liberian refugees have been domiciled in Ghana for over ten years, there is a huge scholarly gap and disparity in the quality of the knowledge base concerning refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in general and the survival strategies and coping mechanisms in particular in Ghana.