History and culture

From the ancient times, the Ghanaian population lived in kingdoms. When the Portuguese arrived there (attracted by Gold), the dominant population were the ASHANTIS. The Portuguese and the Dutches, English and Danish left the gold and ivory trade to dedicate themselves to the lucrative and easiest slaves' commerce.

In this period many fortresses were built by the colonial powers that were cruel fighting each other to save the big profits of the slave commerce. At the end of the 20th century when the slave trade was stopped, left the country with 76 fortresses and castles, each of a size of 6 km, some of them still remains at the coastal areas.

The English outlawed the slave trade and transformed the fortresses into custom houses where they control the Ghanaian products, particulary cocoa. But they soon run into conflict with the Ashantis who lost the interest from the slave trade and would not allow the British to interfere in their cocoa commerce.

The war lasted many years and twice the Ashanti's kingdom's capital, Kumasi, was burnt and destroyed by the English, that also asked for the delivery of the Kings Golden Stool, particulary sacred for the natives, that was hidden.

The indipendence

Ghana became independent in 1957 from the British. The first president was Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, considered as the nations father. He was the person who succeded in transforming a dream into reality, in less than ten years. The dream was the 'The Independence of Ghana from the Colonialist without a war'.

On May 24th 1963 in Addis Ababa, the president of Ghana Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, during his speech (celebrated together with other 29 black continents leaders) at the birth of the Organization of African Union , proclaimed the day after, declared " if we are not able to stay together and united, we will be put out of the game, one by one, and I also would be destroyed". "O A U" has top make a choice making a progress to build a real African Union or take a step backwards to stagnate, unstable and confuse and then become an easy prey to foreign intervention, interference and confusion ….".

Nkrumah was a prophet, not only for Africa but also for himself. For Africa because the continent had not improve geo-politically and still up to date it is grounds for wars, rebellions and guerrillas. A prophet for himself, because he was ousted by a millitary coup in 1966 , took refuge in Egypt, and died in exile in Romania.

After Nkrumah was deposed until 1981, 6 different governments followed one another almost all corrupt and incompetent.

With the Rawlings government from 1983, Ghana started economic development programmes. A constitution was passed in 1992 that saw the birth of political parties and first elections in the country, though the political parties were ethnically biased.

Inspite of these ethnic ties and divisions, Ghana for more than 50 years is free from civil wars that troubles lots of neighbouring states. It can be seen as matured and multiparty democracy. With a free and fair election in 2001, there was a change of government from an incumbent (autocratic) to the opposition, the first in so many years.