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Concept
Ghanaians in the United Kingdom
Summary
Ghanaians in the United Kingdom (also British Ghanaians) encompass both Ghana-born immigrants and their descendants living in the United Kingdom. Immigration to the UK accelerated following the independence of Ghana from the British Empire in 1957, with most British Ghanaians having migrated to the UK between the 1960s to the 1980s owing to poor economic conditions at home.
The 2011 census recorded 95,666 people born in Ghana living in the UK, up from 56,112 in 2001. The most recent estimate by the Office for National Statistics in 2019 estimated that the Ghanaian-born population accounted for 114,000 residents of the UK. None of these figures account for British-born individuals of Ghanaian descent.
Although modern Ghana gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1957 and was the first African country to do so, small numbers of people from that region have been arriving and living in Britain since at least the mid-16th century. At that time, there were many Africans living and working in London, some of whom were based at the royal court. Even Shakespeare, it is rumoured, sought the company of an African lady, Lucy Morgan.
In 1555, John Lok, a London merchant and Alderman, brought five Africans from the town of Shama, in what is present-day Ghana, to London to be trained as interpreters in order to assist England's trade with the western coast of Africa. From that time onwards, economic links were established between West Africa and England. The English were most concerned with acquiring gold from the region that came to be known as the Gold Coast. Pepper and other spices were also much in demand in Europe.
Besides a number of West Africans arriving in Britain during the 16th–18th centuries, there were Britons who went to the Gold Coast and married Ghanaian women. Some Ghanaians have Scottish and English ancestry, since a number of Scots and Englishmen married in local customary ceremonies and had children who became successful, such as Gold Coast's James Bannerman and Robert William Wallace Bruce.
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