Ghana
The whole nation of then Gold Coast was jubilant because on March 6, 1957, Britain's Colony of the Gold Coast became the independent nation of Ghana. Ghana was the first British African colony to gain independence, and it became the model for others to follow. Ghana was named for a powerful African empire that flourished along the upper Niger River from the 4th to the 13th century.
Ghana has a 300-mile- (500-kilometer-) long coast on the Gulf of Guinea between Togo and the Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) borders on the north.
Land and People
Ghana is a country of 92,100 square miles (238,500 square kilometers). The Volta Basin, a vast saucer-shaped plateau averaging from 990 to 1,980 feet (300 to 600 meters) above sea level, occupies the north-central part of the country.
Economy
The main food crops are corn (maize), millet, sorghum, rice, cassavas, taros, yams, and bananas (plantains). Cattle are raised in the north and on the Accra plain. Recent increases in food production have not met domestic demands. Ghana imports staple food supplies and livestock.
Cocoa is produced for export. The government- controlled Cocoa Marketing Board purchases cacao and markets cocoa. During the 1960s Ghana was the world's leading producer of cocoa. Output has declined steadily since the early 1970s, but in 1983 the government instituted a program to revitalize its production. Other cash crops for export are coffee, bananas, palm kernels, copra, limes, kola nuts, rubber, cotton and oil palms.
Ghana has a small number of industries. In addition to food processing, textiles, vehicles, cement, paper, and chemicals are manufactured. A petroleum refinery and an aluminum smelter are located at Tema. The Volta River Authority's Akosombo hydroelectric generating plant and a smaller plant located downstream at Kpong supply Ghana's electricity. Exports of electricity to Benin and Togo ceased in 1984 because of low water levels on Lake Volta.
Ghana's History
Who can visit Ghana and return home unmoved by the dramatic history, rich culture and bustling energy of this emerging West African nation?
Named after the medieval Ghana Empire of West Africa (the title of the kings who ruled the kingdom), the original name of the empire was Wagadugu.
Geographically, the old Ghana is 500 miles north of the present Ghana, and occupied the area between the Senegal and Niger rivers. Some inhabitants of present Ghana had ancestors linked with the medieval Ghana. Before March 1957, Ghana was called the Gold Coast. The Portuguese who came to Ghana in the 15th Century found so much gold between the rivers Ankobra and the Volta that they named the place Mina - meaning Mine. The Gold Coast was later colonized by the English. Similarily, the French, equally impressed by the trinkets worn by the coastal people, named The Ivory Coast, Cote d'Ivoire.
The British set out to make the Gold Coast a showcase African nation, allowing few Europeans to settle or even be employed there. Cocoa exports became the backbone of the economy, followed by gold, timber, manganese, bauxite and diamonds. By WWI, the Gold Coast was the most prosperous colony in Africa, with the best schools and civil service, a cadre of enlightened lawyers and a thriving press. Still, anti-British sentiments ran deep. Independence finally came in 1957, making Ghana - the name chosen by Nkrumah after the first great empire in West Africa - the first black African nation to win freedom from its colonizers.
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