Ghana is a small West African Country tucked between the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, and Togo on the golf of Guinea. Ghana is just north of the Equator and has a wide variety of eco systems including tropical rainforest in the southern and eastern regions of the country, coastal grasslands, and dry open savannah in the north. Generally, Ghana has two seasons: the dry season from October through April and the wet season May through September.

From archaeological evidence, the first hominids arrived in what is now Ghana over a million years ago. Traces of modern man dating back 300,000 years have been found. Little is known about the first humans in Ghana other than they were tribes of hunter-gatherers. Traces of domesticated animals and crops dating back to 2000 B.C. indicate that hunting and gathering ceased to be the most common lifestyle. The people of Ghana are generally divided into several cultural groups that migrated from other areas of Africa: the Mole-Dagbani in the Northern Region, the Ewe in the Eastern Region, and the Akan who are prevalent in the rest of the country. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in Ghana in search of Gold. They landed at what is now Elmina in 1471 and began a very profitable gold trade with the local chieftaincy. Through this trade, the region became known as the Gold Coast. The Dutch attacked Elmina in 1637 and became the dominant European force in what is now Ghana. In the last half of the 15^th century, the British moved in on the Gold Coast and and began trading slaves, which was much more profitable than trading gold. From the late 17^th until the 19^th century, somewhere between 12 and 20 million slaves were captured in West Africa and sent across the Atlantic to the Americas. In these two centuries, Africa lost a high proportion of the most able bodied men and women, and those left behind were paid with guns, alcohol, and tobacco. This situation devestated the West African societies. By the last part of the 19^th century, Britain had gained control over all the European forts on the Gold Coast and began colonizing the Gold Coast.

Resistance to colonial rule began in the 1890s, but did not gain much momentum until after World War II. During the War, around 65,000 volunteers from the Gold Coast Colony went to fight in Europe then returned to unemployment, little opportunity for employment, and neglect by the British Governement. The late 1940s and 1950s were a time of unrest which culminated in the Gold Coast Colony gaining independence from Britain on March 6, 1957. The name Ghana was adopted from teh name of an ancient West African empire. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who played a leading role in Ghana's fight for independence, led the new Ghanaian government until 1966. Nkrumah's government had many successes, especially in infrastructure improvements, but increasingly repressive laws led to a military coup in February 1966. In the 1960s and 1970s, Ghana suffered 4 coups in 15 years along with extreme economic hardships. In 1981, Jerry Rawlings took over and held power until December of 2000. In 2000, Ghana experienced its first transfer of power from one elected leader to the next. During the 1990s and 2000s, Ghana has boasted the strongest economic growth in Africa. In 2007, Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence, and Ghanaians are still fiercely proud of the fact they were the first country in Africa to gain independence from colonizers.

Quick Facts

Official Country Name: Republic of Ghana

Size: 239,460 km², slightly smaller than Oregon

Population: 22,931,300

Government: Constitutional Democracy

Currency: Cedi, currently US $1 is about 9000 cedis

Official Language: English but over 50 languages are spoken in Ghana. The most common languages are: Twi, Ewe, Fante, Boron, Dagomba, and Dangme