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Travel to Ghana — Unbiased reviews and
great deals from TripAdvisorGhana
| Republic of Ghana President: John
Atta Mills (2009)
Current government officials
Land area: 88,811 sq mi (230,020 sq km);
total area: 92,456 sq mi (239,460 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 23,382,848 (growth
rate: 1.9%); birth rate: 29.2/1000; infant mortality rate: 52.3/1000;
life expectancy: 59.4; density per sq km: 101
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Accra, 2,825,800 (metro. area), 1,661,400 (city
proper) Other large cities:
Kumasi, 645,100; Tamale, 279,600 Monetary
unit: Cedi
Languages:
English (official), African languages (including
Akan, Moshi-Dagomba, Ewe, and Ga)
Ethnicity/race:
black African 98.5% (major tribes: Akan 44%,
Moshi-Dagomba 16%, Ewe 13%, Ga 8%, Gurma 3%, Yoruba 1%), European and
other 1.5% (1998)
Religions:
Christian 63%, indigenous beliefs 21%, Islam
16%
National Holiday:
Independence Day, March 6 Literacy rate: 75% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$31.33 billion; per capita $1,400. Real growth rate: 6.4%.
Inflation: 9.6%. Unemployment: 11% (2000 est.).
Arable land: 18%. Agriculture: cocoa, rice, coffee,
cassava (tapioca), peanuts, corn, shea nuts, bananas; timber. Labor
force: 11.29 million (2007 est.); agriculture 60%, industry 15%,
services 25% (1999 est.). Industries: mining, lumbering, light
manufacturing, aluminum smelting, food processing, cement, small
commercial ship building. Natural resources: gold, timber,
industrial diamonds, bauxite, manganese, fish, rubber, hydropower,
petroleum, silver, salt, limestone. Exports: $4.194 billion
f.o.b. (2007 est.): gold, cocoa, timber, tuna, bauxite, aluminum,
manganese ore, diamonds. Imports: $8.073 billion f.o.b. (2007
est.): capital equipment, petroleum, foodstuffs. Major trading
partners: Netherlands, UK, France, U.S., Belgium, Spain, South
Africa, Nigeria, China (2006).
Member of Commonwealth of Nations
Communications: Telephones: main
lines in use: 356,400 (2006); mobile cellular: 5.207 million (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 0, FM 49, shortwave 3 (2007).
Television broadcast stations: 7 (2007). Internet hosts:
2,899 (2007). Internet users: 609,800 (2006). Transportation: Railways: total: 953 km
(2006). Highways: total: 42,623 km; paved: 3,267 km; unpaved:
39,356 km (2004). Waterways: 1,293 km; note: 168 km for
launches and lighters on Volta, Ankobra, and Tano rivers; 1,125 km of
arterial and feeder waterways on Lake Volta (2003). Ports and
harbors: Takoradi, Tema. Airports: 12 (2007). International disputes: Ghana struggles to
accommodate returning nationals who worked in the cocoa plantations
and escaped rebel fighting in Côte d'Ivoire.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
A West African country bordering on the Gulf of
Guinea, Ghana is bounded by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso
to the north, Togo to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It
compares in size to Oregon, and its largest river is the Volta.
Government
Constitutional democracy.
History
Several major civilizations flourished in the
general region of what is now Ghana. The ancient empire of Ghana (located
500 mi northwest of the contemporary state) reigned until the 13th
century. The Akan peoples established the next major civilization,
beginning in the 13th century, and then the Ashanti empire flourished in
the 18th and 19th centuries.
Called the Gold Coast, the area was first seen
by Portuguese traders in 1470. They were followed by the English (1553),
the Dutch (1595), and the Swedes (1640). British rule over the Gold Coast
began in 1820, but it was not until after quelling the severe resistance
of the Ashanti in 1901 that it was firmly established. British Togoland,
formerly a colony of Germany, was incorporated into Ghana by referendum in
1956. Created as an independent country on March 6, 1957, Ghana, as the
result of a plebiscite, became a republic on July 1, 1960.
Premier Kwame Nkrumah attempted to take
leadership of the Pan-African Movement, holding the All-African People's
Congress in his capital, Accra, in 1958 and organizing the Union of
African States with Guinea and Mali in 1961. But he oriented his country
toward the Soviet Union and China and built an autocratic rule over all
aspects of Ghanaian life. In Feb. 1966, while Nkrumah was visiting Beijing
and Hanoi, he was deposed by a military coup led by Gen. Emmanuel K.
Kotoka.
A series of military coups followed, and on June
4, 1979, Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings overthrew Lt. Gen. Frederick Akuffo's
military rule. Rawlings permitted the election of a civilian president to
go ahead as scheduled the following month, and Hilla Limann, candidate of
the People's National Party, took office. Rawlings's three-month rule was
one of Ghana's bloodiest periods, with executions of numerous government
officials and business leaders. Two years later Rawlings staged another
coup, charging the civilian government with corruption. As chairman of the
Provisional National Defense Council, Rawlings scrapped the constitution,
instituted an austerity program, and reduced budget deficits over the next
decade. He then returned the country to civilian rule and won the
presidency in multiparty elections in 1992 and again in 1996. Since then,
Ghana has been widely viewed as one of Africa's most stable democracies.
In Jan. 2001, John Agyekum Kufuor was elected president. In 2002, he set
up a National Reconciliation Commission to review human rights abuses
during the country's military rule. He was reelected in Dec. 2004.
In presidential elections in December 2008, Nana Akufo-Addo, of the
governing New Patriotic Party, won just over 49% of the vote, and John
Atta Mills, of the main opposition party, National Democratic Congress,
took almost 48%. In the runoff election, necessary because neither
candidate received 50% of the vote, Atta Mills eked out victory, with
50.23%. It was the closest election in Ghana's history.
See also Encyclopedia: Ghana.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Ghana
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
More on Ghana from Infoplease:
- Ghana - Ghana Profile: Geography, History, Government and Political Conditions, Economy, Foreign Relations
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- Ghana, country, Africa: Bibliography - Bibliography See D. Kimble, A Political History of Ghana, 1850–1928 (1963); D. Austin, ...
- Ghana, country, Africa - Ghana Ghana, officially Republic of Ghana, republic (2005 est. pop. 21,030,000), 92,099 sq mi ...
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