“Japa Syndrome”: The Implication of Brain Drain and Migration on National Development

Abstract

The trans-Atlantic slave trade was a practice that resulted in the forced removal of millions of our ancestors to foreign countries where they had no prior knowledge. Able-bodied men were among the few remaining males, while women, children, and our land were left without any males. Many African mindset experts believe that the slave trade prevented the richly endowed continent from developing, both in terms of its population and natural resources, as stated by Walter Rodney in his 1972 publication How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. This migration has returned after more than 200 years, although in a different shape than the one they were in before shipped away involuntarily, while the former is a deliberate method of looking for a way out of Nigeria.