GHANA



Republic of Ghana

CAPITAL : Accra

FLAG : The national flag is a tricolor of red, yellow, and green horizontal stripes, with a five-pointed black star in the center of the yellow stripe.

ANTHEM : Hail the Name of Ghana.

MONETARY UNIT : The cedi (¢) is a paper currency of 100 pesewas. There are coins of 1 / 2 , 1, 2 1 / 2 , 5, 10, 20, and 50 pesewas and 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 cedis, and notes of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1,000 cedis. ¢1 = $0.000118 (or $1 = ¢8450) as of May 2003.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES : The metric system is the legal standard.

HOLIDAYS : New Year's Day, 1 January; Anniversary of the Inauguration of the Fourth Republic, 7 January; Independence Day, 6 March; Labor Day, 1 May; Republic Day, 1 July; Christmas, 25 December; Boxing Day, 26 December; Movable religious holidays include Good Friday and Easter Monday.

TIME : GMT.


FLORA AND FAUNA

Plants and animals are mainly those common to tropical regions, but because of human encroachment, Ghana has fewer large and wild mammals than in other parts of Africa. Most of the forest is in the south and in a strip along the border with Togo. Except for coastal scrub and grassland, the rest of Ghana is savanna.

LANGUAGES

Of the 56 indigenous languages and dialects spoken in Ghana, 31 are used mainly in the northern part of the country. The languages follow the tribal divisions, with the related Akan languages of Twi and Fanti being most prominent. Also widely spoken are Moshi-Dagomba, Ewe, and Ga. English is the official language and is the universal medium of instruction in schools. It is officially supplemented by five local languages.

ARMED FORCES

In 2002, Ghana's active defense forces numbered 7,000. The army numbers 5,000 including the presidential guard. The 1,000-member navy operates six vessels, and the air force 1,000 flies 19 combat aircraft. The Ghanaian military provides support to UN and peacekeeping missions in Croatia, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan, and the Western Sahara. Ghana spent $35.2 million on defense in 2001, or 0.7% of GDP.

DEPENDENCIES

Ghana has no territories or colonies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allman, Jean Marie. The Quills of the Porcupine: Asante Nationalism in an Emergent Ghana. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993.

Apt, Nana A. Coping with Old Age in Changing Africa: Social Change and the Elderly Ghanian . Aldershot, England: Avebury, 1996.

Berry, LaVerle. Ghana: A Country Study. 3d ed. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1995.

Bowditch, Nathaniel H. The Last Emerging Market: from Asian Tigers to African Lions?: The Ghana File. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1999.

Edgerton, Robert B. The Fall of the Asante Empire: The Hundred-year War for Africa's Gold Coast . New York: The Free Press, 1995.

Ghana: A Country Study. 3rd ed. W. Va.: Library of Congress, 1995.

Greene, Sandra E. Sacred Sites and the Colonial Encounter: A History of Meaning and Memory in Ghana. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.

Herbst, Jeffrey Ira. The Politics of Reform in Ghana, 1982–1991. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.

Lall, Sanjaya. Skills and Capabilities: Ghana's Industrial Competitiveness . Oxford, U.K.: Queen Elizabeth House, 1996.

Lentz, Carola and Paul Nugent (eds.). Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000.

Mann, Kenny. Ghana, Mali, Songhay: The Western Sudan. Parsippany, N.J.: Dillon Press, 1996.

Myers, Robert A. Ghana. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Clio Press, 1991.

Newell, Stephanie. Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.

Nugent, Paul. Big Men, Small Boys and Politics in Ghana: Power, Ideology and the Burden of History, 1982-1994 . London: Piner, 1995.

Osei, Akwasi P. Ghana: Recurrence and Change in a Post-Independence African State. New York: P. Lang, 1999.

Owusu-Ansah, David, and Daniel M. McFarland. Historical Dictionary of Ghana . 2d ed. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1995.

——. Historical Dictionary of Ghana. [computer file] Boulder, Colo.: netLibrary, Inc., 2000.

Quaye, Randolph. Underdevelopment and Health Care in Africa: The Ghanaian Experience . Lewiston: Mellen University Press, 1996.

Rimmer, Douglas. Staying Poor: Ghana's Political Economy, 1950–1990. New York: Pergamon, 1992.

Salm, Steven J. Culture and Customs of Ghana. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002.

Shillington, Kevin. Ghana and the Rawlings Factor. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992.

Zuboff, Shoshana. The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and the Next Episode of Capitalism. New York: Viking, 2002.

Also read article about Ghana from Wikipedia

User Contributions:

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big daddie
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