Based on an unusual source—a retrospective survey of migration from 1900 to 1975—this book traces the history of internal and international labor migration involving colonial and contemporary Burkina Faso, the West African coast, and other parts of Africa. Interviews with returned migrants elicited information about age, matrimonial status, motives for migrating, employment, destinations, residence, and motives for returning.The survey, which includes data on nearly one hundred thousand migrants and on 1.5 million instances of migration, offers a uniquely African perspective on migration on an unprecedented scale. Especially valuable are the data on women, which show higher levels of female labor migration and more diverse patterns of mobility than previously suspected. Although the emphasis of the study is on analysis of the survey data, the book also integrates historical and anthropological research on burkinabe societies.