Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated with the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to the east. Ghana covers an area of 239,567 km2 (92,497 sq mi), spanning diverse ecologies, from coastal savannas to tropical rainforests. With over 35 million inhabitants, Ghana is the thirteenth-most populous country in Africa, and the second-most populous country in West Africa specifically. The capital and largest city is Accra; other significant cities include Tema, Kumasi, Sunyani, Ho, Cape Coast, Techiman, Tamale, Bolga, Wa, and Sekondi-Takoradi.
Republic of Ghana | |
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Flag Coat of arms | |
| Motto: "Freedom and Justice" | |
| Anthem: "God Bless Our Homeland Ghana" | |
| Capital and largest city | Accra 05°33′18″N 00°11′33″W / 5.55500°N 0.19250°W |
| Official languages | English |
| Government-sponsored languages |
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| Working languages |
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| Ethnic groups (2021) |
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| Religion (2021) |
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| Demonym | Ghanaian |
| Government | Unitary presidential republic |
• President | John Mahama |
• Vice-President | Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang |
• Speaker of Parliament | Alban Bagbin |
• Chief Justice | Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie |
| Legislature | Parliament |
| Independence from the United Kingdom | |
• Dominion | 6 March 1957 |
• Republic | 1 July 1960 |
| Area | |
• Total | 240,000 km2 (93,000 sq mi) (80th) |
• Water (%) | 4.61 (11,000 km2; 4,247 mi2) |
| Population | |
• 2025 estimate | 35,039,451 (46th) |
• Density | 151/km2 (391.1/sq mi) (90th) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2025 estimate |
• Total | $295.12 billion (68th) |
• Per capita | $8,042 (132nd) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2025 estimate |
• Total | $88.033 billion (79th) |
• Per capita | $2,520 (143rd) |
| Gini (2024) | 44 medium inequality |
| HDI (2023) | 0.628 medium (143rd) |
| Currency | Cedi (GHS) |
| Time zone | UTC±00:00 (GMT) |
| Calling code | +233 |
| ISO 3166 code | GH |
| Internet TLD | .gh |
The earliest kingdoms to emerge in Ghana were Bonoman in the south and the Kingdom of Dagbon in the north, with Bonoman existing in the area during the 11th century. The Asante Empire and other Akan kingdoms in the south emerged over the centuries. Beginning in the 15th century, the Portuguese Empire, followed by other European powers, contested the area for trading rights, until the British ultimately established control of the coast by the 19th century. Following more than a century of colonial resistance, the current borders of the country took shape, encompassing four separate British colonial territories: Gold Coast, Ashanti, the Northern Territories, and British Togoland. These were unified as an independent dominion within the Commonwealth of Nations. On 6 March 1957 Ghana became the first colony in Sub-Saharan Africa to achieve sovereignty. Under President Kwame Nkrumah, it became influential in decolonisation efforts and the Pan-African movement.
Ghana is a multi-ethnic country with diverse linguistic and religious groups; while the Akan are the largest ethnic group, they constitute a plurality. Most Ghanaians are Christians (71.3%); almost a fifth are Muslims; a tenth practise traditional faiths or report no religion. Ghana is a unitary constitutional democracy led by a president who is head of state and head of government. For political stability in Africa, Ghana ranked seventh in the 2022 Ibrahim Index of African Governance and fifth in the 2024 Fragile States Index. Since 1993, it has maintained one of the freest and most stable governments on the continent, and performs relatively well in healthcare, economic growth, and human development. It has a significant influence in West Africa and Africa as a whole. Ghana is highly integrated in international affairs, being a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement and the African Union, and a member of the Economic Community of West African States, the Group of 24 and the Commonwealth of Nations.
Etymology
The Empire of Ghana
The name Ghana comes from Wagadu, an empire in west Africa from the 3rd to 12th centuries; Wagadu was termed Ghana by Arab traders involved in the trans-Saharan trade. Ghana is thought to originate from the title Kaya Maghan of the rulers of Wagadu, which translates as ruler of gold.
Adoption of Ghana in precolonial scholarship
The earliest attempt to associate the peoples of the Gold Coast with ancient Ghana had been made by Rev. J. B. Anaman around the turn of the twentieth century, who drew on D. W. Cooley’s nineteenth-century interpretation of Arabic geographical sources to make an argument for a historical connection, he suggested an alternative derivation connecting the name to the Wangara. Lady Flora Shaw later compiled both Arabic and European writings to create detailed narratives of the kingdom. She presented it as a major African power comparable to contemporary Western European states
According to Jack Goody, the theory that the Akan peoples originated from the medieval Empire of Ghana was continuously promoted through the teachings of Rev. W. T. Balmer between 1907 and 1911, who instructed students that the Akan had migrated from the ancient kingdom located near the Upper Niger. Goody states that Balmer's hypothesis lacked linguistic and historical evidence, yet it later became influential among educated elites and nationalist intellectuals.
The hypothesis gained more popularity when it was introduced into educational institutions, primarily in Achimota, during the 1920s where it later spread to other schools. The theory was later publicized by J. B. Danquah's academic writings; he used Arabic and French translations to claim that the Akan migrated from the Upper Niger region. Danquah proposed that the term Ghana was a corruption of Akane or Akana and associated it with the ancient region of Akkad. Eva L. R. Meyerowitz expanded this rhetoric through a series of publications that sought to reconstruct early history. She claimed that Akan origins and culture came from areas in the Sahara and the Near East, and argued that Akan culture was not mainly black African, but could instead be considered Libya-Berber or connected to Mediterranean or Near Eastern cultures.
National acceptance and symbolic meaning
By the period leading to independence, the name "Ghana" was widely accepted and adopted as a symbol of precolonial prestige, cultural unity, and national legitimacy.
History
Medieval kingdoms
The earliest kingdoms to emerge in Ghana were Bonoman in the south and the Kingdom of Dagbon in the north, with Bonoman existing in the area during the 11th century. From the 17th century, different Akan states began to emerge from what is believed to have been the Bonoman area, mainly based on gold trading. These states included Bonoman (Brong-Ahafo region), Adansi and Asante (Ashanti Region), Denkyira (Western North region), Mankessim Kingdom (Central region), Akyem and Akwamu (Eastern region). By the 19th century, the territory of the southern part of Ghana was included in the Asante Kingdom. The government of the Ashanti Empire operated first as a loose network and eventually as a centralised kingdom with a specialised bureaucracy centred in the capital city of Kumasi. Prior to Akan contact with Europeans, the Akan people created an economy based on principally gold and gold bar precious metals, which were traded with other states in Africa.
The Ga-Dangme and Ewe migrated westward from south-western Nigeria. The Ewe, formerly known as Dogbo, migrated from Oyo area with their Gbe-speaking kinsmen (Adja, Fon, Phla/Phera and Ogun/Gun) and, in transition, settled at Ketou in Benin Republic, Tado in Togo, and Dogbo Nyigbo in Benin Republic, with Nortsie (a walled town in present-day Togo) as their final dispersal point. Their dispersal from Nortsie was necessitated by the high-handed rule of King Agorkorli (Agɔ Akɔli), who was the reigning monarch of the tribe at that time. The Ewe in Ghana speak three principal dialects: Anlo (along the coast), Tongu (along the Volta river) and Ewedome (in the hill country side). The Ga-Dangme occupy the Greater Accra Region and parts of the Eastern Region, while the Ewe are found in the Volta Region as well as the neighbouring Togo, Benin Republic and Nigeria (around Badagry area).[citation needed]
European contact and colonialism
Akan trade with European states began after contact with the Portuguese in the 15th century. European contact was by the Portuguese people, who came to the Gold Coast region in the 15th century to trade. The Portuguese then established the Portuguese Gold Coast (Costa do Ouro), focused on the availability of gold. The Portuguese built a trading lodge at a coastal settlement called Anomansah (the perpetual drink), which they renamed São Jorge da Mina. In 1481, King John II of Portugal commissioned Diogo de Azambuja to build the Elmina Castle, which was completed in three years. By 1598, the Dutch had joined the Portuguese in the gold trade, establishing the Dutch Gold Coast (Nederlandse Bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea – 'Dutch properties at the Guinea coast') and building forts at Fort Komenda and Kormantsi. In 1617, the Dutch captured the Elmina Castle from the Portuguese and Axim in 1642 (Fort St Anthony).
European traders had joined in gold trading by the 17th century, including the Swedes, establishing the Swedish Gold Coast (Svenska Guldkusten), and Denmark–Norway, establishing the Danish Gold Coast (Danske Guldkyst or Dansk Guinea). European traders participated in the Atlantic slave trade in this area. More than 30 forts and castles were built by the merchants. The Germans established the Brandenburger Gold Coast or Groß Friedrichsburg. In 1874, Great Britain established control over some parts of the country, assigning these areas the status of the British Gold Coast. Military engagements occurred between British colonial powers and Akan nation-states. The Kingdom of Ashanti defeated the British some times in the 100-year-long Anglo-Ashanti wars and eventually lost with the War of the Golden Stool in 1900. In the late 19th century, cocoa cultivation spread through the tropical forests, with the British administration actively supporting the growth of the commercial cocoa industry.
Transition to independence
In 1947, the newly formed United Gold Coast Convention led by "The Big Six" called for "self-government within the shortest possible time" following the 1946 Gold Coast legislative election. Kwame Nkrumah, a Ghanaian nationalist who led Ghana from 1957 to 1966 as the country's first prime minister and president, formed the Convention People's Party in 1949 with the motto "self-government now". The party initiated a "positive action" campaign involving non-violent protests, strikes and non-cooperation with the British authorities. Nkrumah was arrested and sentenced to one year imprisonment during this time. In the Gold Coast's 1951 general election, he was elected to Parliament and was released from prison. He became prime minister in 1952 and began a policy of Africanization.[citation needed]
At midnight on 6 March 1957, the Gold Coast, Ashanti, the Northern Territories, and British Togoland were unified as one single independent dominion within the British Commonwealth under the name Ghana. This was done under the Ghana Independence Act 1957. The current flag of Ghana, consisting of the colours red, gold, green, and a black star, dates back to this unification. On 1 July 1960, following the Ghanaian constitutional referendum and Ghanaian presidential election, Nkrumah declared Ghana a republic and assumed the presidency. 6 March is the nation's Independence Day, and 1 July is celebrated as Republic Day.
Nkrumah led an authoritarian regime in Ghana, as he repressed political opposition and conducted elections that were not free and fair. In 1964, a constitutional amendment made Ghana a one-party state, with Nkrumah as president for life of both the nation and its party. Nkrumah was the first African head of state to promote the concept of Pan-Africanism, which he had been introduced to during his studies at Lincoln University, Pennsylvania in the United States, at the time when Marcus Garvey was known for his "Back to Africa Movement". He merged the teachings of Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr. and the naturalised Ghanaian scholar W. E. B. Du Bois into the formation of 1960s Ghana. Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, as he became known, played an instrumental part in the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement, and in establishing the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute to teach his ideologies of communism and socialism. His life achievements were recognised by Ghanaians during his centenary birthday celebration, and the day was instituted as a public holiday in Ghana (Founders' Day).
Operation Cold Chop and aftermath
The government of Nkrumah was subsequently overthrown in a coup by the Ghana Armed Forces, codenamed "Operation Cold Chop". This occurred while Nkrumah was abroad with Zhou Enlai in the People's Republic of China, on a mission to Hanoi, Vietnam, to help end the Vietnam War. The coup took place on 24 February 1966, led by Colonel Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka and Brigadier Akwasi Afrifa. The National Liberation Council was formed, chaired by Lieutenant General Joseph A. Ankrah.
A series of alternating military and civilian governments, often affected by economic instabilities, ruled Ghana from 1966, ending with the ascent to power of Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings of the Provisional National Defence Council in 1981. These changes resulted in the suspension of the constitution in 1981 and the banning of political parties. The economy soon declined, so Rawlings negotiated a structural adjustment plan, changing many old economic policies, and growth recovered during the mid-1980s. A new constitution restoring multi-party system politics was promulgated in the presidential election of 1992, in which Rawlings was elected, and again in the general election of 1996.
In a tribal war in Northern Ghana in 1994, between the Konkomba and other ethnic groups, including the Nanumba, Dagomba and Gonja, between 1,000 and 2,000 people were killed and 150,000 people were displaced.
After the 2000 general election, John Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party became president of Ghana on 7 January 2001 and was re-elected in 2004, thus also serving two terms (the term limit) as president of Ghana and marking the first time under the fourth republic that power was transferred from one legitimately elected head of state and head of government to another.
Nana Akufo-Addo, the ruling party candidate, was defeated in a very close 2008 general election by John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress. Mills died of natural causes and was succeeded by Vice President John Mahama on 24 July 2012. Following the 2012 general election, Mahama became president in his own right, and Ghana was described as a "stable democracy". As a result of the 2016 general election, Nana Akufo-Addo became president on 7 January 2017. He was re-elected after a tightly contested election in 2020. Akufo-Addo's presidency finished in January 2025, and John Mahama, the current president of Ghana, succeeded him.
To combat deforestation, on 11 June 2021 Ghana inaugurated Green Ghana Day, with the aim of planting five million trees.
Geography
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