[5] Fleetwood had expressed interest in making a record rooted in African music in 1978,[6] although this idea was not fully realized until he travelled to Ghana.

During the trip, he formulated the idea of collaborating with local musicians in Ghana to perform a mixture of Western and traditional African songs.

[5] Upon reaching out to RCA Records, the label's president, Robert Summer, met with Fleetwood for lunch and agreed to fund the project.

[9] He also consulted with Craig Woodson, a musicologist and professor at UCLA, who played him various tape recordings to prepare Fleetwood for his trip.

[7][8] In return, he also asked Woodson if it would be appropriate to straddle English words onto existing African songs, but decided against this as he was concerned that it would be culturally insensitive to do so.

[10] During the recording sessions, Fleetwood, Hawkins, Todd Sharp, and Richard Dashut stayed at the Star Hotel in Accra.

[16] Hawkins recalled that Fleetwood gave Harrison a phone call and asked him to visit Page's recording studio.

"[11] Fleetwood decided to cover "You Weren't in Love with Me" after hearing the song in an Australian bar with Dashut prior to their trip to Ghana.

"You Weren't in Love With Me" was still a demo at the time Fleetwood and Dashut heard it, but the song still piqued their interest, prompting them to look into Field the next day.

[7] There were tentative plans in September 1981 to release a special on PBS using footage captured by the film crew; a documentary on The Visitor produced by the BBC was ultimately aired on MTV the following month.