10 regions; Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra, Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Volta, Western.
Ethnically, the people of Ghana may be said to belong to one broad group within the African family, but there is a large variety of tribal, or subethnic, units. On the basis of language, it is possible to distinguish at least 75 different tribes. Many of these are very small, and only 10 of them are numerically significant. The largest groups are the Akan, Mole-Dagbani, Ewe, Ga-Adangme (Ga-Adangbe), and Gurma. Despite its tribal variety, there were no serious tribal dissensions when Ghana became independent. Tribal consciousness persists in many areas, however, and at times tensions have erupted, especially in northern Ghana, into violent clashes with many fatalities. At all levels in government and in public life, an effort has been made to play down tribal differences, a policy that has been helped by the adoption of English as the official language.
The population of Ghana in 2001 was 19,894,014, giving the country a population density of 83 persons per sq km (216 per sq mi). Life expectancy at birth is estimated at 57.2 years, one of the highest rates in sub-Saharan Africa. With a birth rate of 28.95 per 1,000 and a death rate of 10.26 per 1,000, the country’s population growth rate is 1.79 percent (2001 estimate). While this current rate of increase is moderate compared with other West African nations, Ghana’s population almost tripled from 1960 to 2000.
From oral traditions historians have learned that the ancestors of many of Ghana's ethnic groups entered their present territories by the 10th century ad. For hundreds of years thereafter, upheaval caused by the rise and fall of powerful kingdoms on the upper Niger River contributed to population migrations into northern Ghana. The first of these states was the Kingdom of Ghana, which emerged as early as 500 ad, expanded greatly by the 9th century, and collapsed in the 11th century. The Kingdom of Ghana was located in what is now southeastern Mauritania and southwestern Mali. (The only relationship between this ancient kingdom and the modern nation of Ghana is a shared name.
The modern state of Ghana is named after the ancient African empire that flourished until the 13th century and was situated close to the Sahara in the western Sudan. The centre of ancient Ghana lay about 500 miles to the northwest of the nearest part of the modern state, and it is tolerably certain that no part of the latter lay within its borders. The claim that an appreciable proportion of modern Ghana's people derived from emigrants from the ancient empire cannot be substantiated with the evidence available at present. Written sources relate only to the period since European contact with the Gold Coast i.e., modern Ghana began in the 15th century, or to Muslim contacts with ancient Ghana from about the 8th to the 13th century. Many modern Ghanaian peoples possess well-preserved oral traditions, but even though some of these may reach as far back as the 14th century, this is after the final disappearance of ancient Ghana, and such very early traditions often present considerable problems of interpretation. Little progress has so far been made in linking the surviving traditions with the available archaeological evidence.
Following intense constitutional negotiations and a hotly contested election, the CPP emerged on March 6, 1957, to lead the government of an independent Ghana. Nkrumah became the country’s first prime minister. The UGCC and several other opposition parties joined together to form the United Party (UP).
Ghana has a rich indigenous culture. Culturally, the peoples of Ghana have many affinities with their French-speaking neighbours, but each tribal group has distinctive cultural attributes. In all parts of the country the cultural heritage is closely linked with religion and the institution of chieftaincy. Various festivals and rites are centred on chieftaincy and the family and are occasioned by such events as harvest, marriage, birth, puberty, and death.
Ghanaian society is without sharp class distinctions. Insofar as traditional authority is based on a system of hereditary chieftaincy, it is possible to speak of aristocratic classes within the tribal groups, but the institution of chieftaincy is essentially democratic in operation and the authority of chiefs is broadly based. Land is usually owned by families, militating against the emergence of a small, powerful landed class wielding economic control over a landless class. These inherent egalitarian tendencies of the society have been heightened by economic and social mobility, depending on education and individual enterprise.
Ghana has long been exposed to outside influences on its society and culture. To some extent, Islam shapes the society of the north while Christianity is strong in the south. Despite the influence of these world religions, however, much of Ghanaian society continues to be traditional. Most people recognize the place of traditional practices. For example, local chiefs have customary rights to preside over traditional society, and the young respect parents and their elders. An extended family’s elders arbitrate the inheritance of the family’s land, possessions, and social status among its members and to other people in the community.
Relief throughout Ghana is generally low, with altitudes nowhere exceeding 3,000 feet (900 metres). The southwestern, northwestern, and extreme northern parts of the country consist of a dissected peneplain a land surface worn down by erosion to a nearly flat plain, later uplifted and again cut by erosion into hills and valleys or into flat uplands separated by valleys; it is made of Precambrian rocks (from 570 million to 3.8 billion years old). Most of the remainder of the country consists of Paleozoic deposits (from 245 to 570 million years old), which are thought to rest on older rocks. The Paleozoic sediments are composed mostly of beds of shales (laminated sediments consisting mostly of particles of clay) and sandstones in which strata of limestone occur in places. They occupy a large area called the Voltaian Basin in the north-central part of the country where the altitude rarely exceeds 500 feet. The basin is dominated by Lake Volta, an artificial lake that extends far into the central part of the country behind the Akosombo Dam and covers 3,275 square miles
Southern Ghana contains evergreen and semideciduous forests, consisting of tall silk cottons, kolas, and valuable West African hardwoods such as mahogany, odum, and ebony. The northern two-thirds of the country is covered by savanna (a tropical grassland with a scattering of shrubs and trees), featuring shea trees, acacias, and baobabs. The oil palm is found throughout the south and the Ashanti uplands, and the lagoons of the coast contain mangroves. Once plentiful throughout the savanna, large mammals such as elephants and lions are now rare and largely confined to nature reserves. The forest regions are habitats for monkeys, snakes, and antelopes, and some of the major rivers contain crocodiles. There are more than 725 bird species in Ghana.
Before the arrival of European colonists in the 1400s, farming, herding, and fishing were the main indigenous Ghanaian economic activities, with smaller numbers of people mining for gold. With the establishment of complete colonial control in the late 1800s, the territory’s economy was drawn fully into the world capitalist system, and gold was exported in large quantities to Europe. Ghanaian farmers produced cash crops such as cacao for the export market. European merchants, however, dominated the export and import economy. Upon independence in 1957, the state assumed greater involvement in the national economy. From the late 1960s through the 1970s, Ghana experienced severe economic decline as a result of political instability. By the mid-1980s, however, economic recovery programs were underway to encourage and expand private sector investments. Both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) supported the reform programs. In the mid-1980s the government promoted industries using local raw materials and private investment in food production. From 1990 to 1999, Ghana’s economy grew an average of 4.3 percent each year.
The economy is a mixture of private and public enterprise. National income is derived primarily from agricultural and mineral output and only to a limited extent from manufacturing and services. Most of the cash crops and mineral products are for export.
Before independence the government's role was confined mainly to the provision of such basic utilities as water, electricity, railways, roads, and postal services. Agriculture, commerce, banking, and industry were almost entirely in private hands, with foreign interests controlling the greater share in all of them except agriculture.
Well endowed with natural resources, Ghana has twice the per capita output of the poorer countries in West Africa. Even so, Ghana remains heavily dependent on international financial and technical assistance. Gold, timber, and cocoa production are major sources of foreign exchange. The domestic economy continues to revolve around subsistence agriculture, which accounts for 36% of GDP and employs 60% of the work force, mainly small landholders. In 1995-97, Ghana made mixed progress under a three-year structural adjustment program in cooperation with the IMF. On the minus side, public sector wage increases and regional peacekeeping commitments have led to continued inflationary deficit financing, depreciation of the cedi, and rising public discontent with Ghana's austerity measures. Political uncertainty and a depressed cocoa market led to disappointing growth in 2000. A rebound in the cocoa market should push growth over 4% in 2001-02.
Poor to fair system; Internet accessible; many rural communities not yet connected; expansion of services is underway
domestic: primarily microwave radio relay; wireless local loop has been installed
international: satellite earth stations - 4 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); microwave radio relay link to Panaftel system connects Ghana to its neighbors
Over 100 linguistic and ethnic groups have been identified in Ghana. However, the population is classified into two major linguistic families: the Kwa and the Gur. The Kwa speakers, traditionally associated with the area south of the Volta, make up about 75 percent of the population. The major Kwa linguistic subgroup is the Akan speakers, who are further subdivided into the Ashanti, Bono, Fante, Akuapem, Akyem, and Kwahu, among others. The Ashanti and Akuapem peoples speak similar Akan dialects, collectively known as Twi. Other Kwa linguistic groups include the Nzima, Ga, Gonja, Adangbe, and Ewe.
Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere or EGLE [Owuraku AMOFA, chairman]; National Convention Party or NCP [Sarpong KUMA-KUMA]; National Democratic Congress or NDC [Dr. Huudu YAHAYA, general secretary]; New Patriotic Party or NPP [Samuel Arthur ODOI-SYKES]; People's Convention Party or PCP [P. K. DONKOH-AYIFI, acting chairman]; People's Heritage Party or PHP [Emmanuel Alexander ERSKINE]; People's National Convention or PNC [Edward MAHAMA]
A president, selected by direct popular election to a four-year term, is head of state and commander in chief of the Ghana armed forces. According to the constitution, the president must be a Ghanaian by birth, must be at least 40 years of age before taking office, and can serve no more than two terms in office. The president appoints a vice president and a Council of Ministers, a cabinet body whose members have different portfolios, or responsibilities, for advising the president on specific national and international issues. A Council of State acts as another advisory body; each of the 10 administrative regions of the country elects a council member, and the president appoints the remaining 15 members.
International organization Member
ABEDA, ACP, AfDB, C, CCC, ECA, ECOWAS, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, MINURSO, NAM, OAS (observer), OAU, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNMOP, UNMOT, UNTAET, UNU, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO.
Christian missionaries introduced Western-style education to Ghana in the 18th century. Although some schools are still affiliated with religious groups, the state is now the main provider of education. In 1996, 20 percent of the national budget was spent on education. Primary education is free and compulsory. In 1996, 76 percent of primary school-aged children attended primary school. Attendance at the secondary school level was 31 percent and 1.4 percent at the university level. A greater percentage of boys attended school than girls, the gap widening above the primary school level. However, the disparity in attendance by gender was not due to any state policy.
Military branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, National Police Force, Palace Guard, Civil Defense
Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 4,890,483 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 2,713,584 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 213,237 (2001 est.)
None
