The migration to West Africa from Lebanon started in colonial times in the end of the 19th century. As a result of economic crisis and political pressure under Ottoman rule, many Lebanese from South Lebanon left their hometowns searching for better working opportunities and hoping to earn enough to send money back to the families they left in Lebanon.
The first Lebanese leaving for Africa settled in Dakar, Senegal where the first Lebanese community in Africa was formed. But the Lebanese emigrants soon spread to most countries in West-Africa.
The occupations the emigrants took up in their new countries were of different kinds, some invested in Senegalese peanut farming while others succeeded in buying agricultural goods from inland farmers and sell to bigger companies on the coast owned by the colonial rulers, the French. Later many Lebanese moved on to businesses in commerce, manufacturing and the real estate business.
The Lebanese emigrants in West-Africa have great impact on both local economies and the Lebanese economy. Today in for example Liberia, the economy is dominated by the 4,000-strong Lebanese community, many of whom were born in the country. Liberia's staple food, rice, is imported by two Lebanese companies, while at least one giant mobile phone company is Lebanese-owned. They also own printing presses, stores, companies, real estate and leading car-import companies. In Senegal the Lebanese has since the 70’s to the present donated many of the country’s most prominent mosques, schools and hospitals.
Even though the Lebanese living in the Ivory Coast only succumbs to less than 1% of the total population, Lebanese merchants hold on to 1/6 of Ivoirian consumer retail businesses in the country. In the Ivory Coast capital, Abidjan, Lebanese-Ivoirians own as much as 80% of modern buildings today. Abidjan's commercial heart, the Rue de Commerce, is known as Little Beirut for the predominance of Lebanese-owned shops.
The Lebanese emigrants are transferring lot of their earnings back to their country of origin and contribute to local development in Lebanon. Remittances to Lebanon from the Lebanese in Africa reached between $ 1.5 – 2 billion out of the total of $ 7 billion that flowed in to the country in 2009.
Sources: Anja Peleikis: “Female Identities in a “globalized village”: a case study of South Lebanese migration to West Africa in Woman and Migration by J. Knorr & B. Meier
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4703029.stm
http://linkinglebanon.com/villagedetails.asp?ID=506