Gold Coast/ Ghana

History

For most of Africa below the Sahara, but north of the tropical jungles, the development up to 500 A.D. was expanding agriculture. Well-organized villages arose; many were similar to the villages that exist today. Farming began earliest on the southern tips of the Sahara. Toward the end of the classical era, important regional kingdoms were forming in West Africa, which lead to the first great state - Ghana. Ghana faced challenges such as dense vegetation, disease's impact on domesticated animals, and slow spread of agriculture southward. But the strength of the agricultural economy would have an impact on the new kingdoms to the west of the Nile. Trade brought new crops from Southeast Asia near 100 A.D.

Formed from the merger of the British colony Gold Coast and the British Togoland trust territory by a UN sponsored plebiscite, Ghana in 1957 became the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence. Kwame Nkrumah was an African anti-colonial leader, founder and first president of the modern Ghanaian state. He was the 1st African head of state in the Pan-African Movement, which was an idea he appropriated during his studies at Lincoln University in the United States, at the time when Marcus Garvey was becoming famous for his "Back to Africa Movement".

Nkrumah was overthrown by a CIA-assisted coup. A series of subsequent coups ended with the ascension to power of Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings in 1981. His changes resulted in the suspension of the constitution in 1981 and the banning of political parties. A new constitution, restoring multiparty politics, was approved in 1992, and Rawlings was elected in free elections of that year and also in 1996. The constitution prohibited him from running for a third term. John Kufuor, the current president, is now in his second term. 2007 will mark Ghana's Golden Jubilee celebration of 50 years of independence, Ghana@50.

Politics

Although a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ghana is a Republic. Its head of state is President John Agyekum Kufuor, the ninth leader of the country since independence. The Parliament of Ghana is unicameral and dominated by two main parties, the New Patriotic Party and National Democratic Congress. Kofi Annan, the current Secretary-General of the United Nations, is from Ghana.

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