Ghana

The Ghana flag was officially made March 6, 1957. The flag originally had a middle stripe that was white, but changed February 28, 1966. The black star on the flag is a symbol for the African freedom. The color red symbolizes the blood of those when died in the country’s struggle for independence. The gold stands for the minerals wealth. And the green represents the rich forests.

The Ghana state has three other flags, the Civil Ensign, the Civil Air Ensign, and the President’s Flag. The Civil Ensign has a red ensign with the national flag in the upper left corner. The Civil Air Ensign has a light blue field wit a large black star in the middle, and the national flag in the upper left corner. The President’s Flag is just like the national flag, but it had a golden fringe on the sides.

During the time Ghana has been a country, it’s had its ups and downs with economics, trading natural sources, slave trade, Government, the leaders, culture, and independence, but has become stable throughout time. Modern Ghana takes its name from the ancient kingdom of Ghana, around 500 miles north of the present day Accra. (Ellis, Esler 562)The kingdom of Ghana controlled the gold trade between the south and north for the Saharan trading routes. Europeans were getting jealous of the trading positions by the coast, but Ghana stood strong and didn’t let them take over.

By the end of the 17th century, Ghana had a number of small states on the gold coast. By 1750 they merged into two diplomacy’s; the Fantes and Asante Empire. By the 18th century, the Asante Empire wanted all the land by the coast, and access to the trading post of Elmina. Around 1897, the British tried to seize the Asante, they failed, but they were however able to take Kumasi and get a huge ransom for it in gold. The empire shrunk to the Asante and Brong-Ahafo regions of Modern Ghana.

Meanwhile the Fantes had been uniting and organizing, and in 1868 formed themselves a King-President, 15,000 strong army, a Civil Service and Constitution. (Crawfurd, Jacob) In 1871, the British arrested the Fantes leaders for “treason” they were freed one month later, but the confederacy never recovered. (C, J) In 1874, the British formally established the British Crown Colony of the Gold Coast. The Asante and Fantes traditions of education and organization, and their urge for autonomy remained throughout British Colonial rule. In 1948 Major riots broke out and the British policy knew colonialism had no future.

Born in 1909, Dr.Kwame Nkrumah became a teacher at Achimota College in Ghana. He later became the general secretary of the United Gold Coast Convention. (UGCC) In 1949, he broke away from the Convention People’s Party and went onto the field with Slogan Self-Government. February 1951, the party was victorious in the polls and became the leaders of government business in the colony’s first African Government. The Gold Coast had become the first British Colony in Africa to achieve self-government.

On March 6, 1957, Ghana achieved independence. It was the first British

Colony in Africa to do so, with Dr.Kwame Nkrumah as its first Prime Minister.

(E, E 562) On July 1, 1960 it was declared republic with Dr.Kwame Nkrumah as its first president. On February 24, 1966 the government Dr.Kwame Nkrumah had been making for the past 6 years had been over run by the Ghana armed forces and police. (E, E 562) General Joseph Arthur Ankrah was now the administrator for the country, and the leader of the National Liberation Council (NLC.) He was removed form the office on April 13, 1969 and General Akwasi Amankwa became the chairman of the NLC, which later gave way to a three-man Presidential Commission with General Afrifa as the chairman. The commission paved the way for a general election in 1969 which brought into power the Progress Party Government, with Dr.Kofi Abrefa Busia as Prime minister and Mr.Edward Akofo Addo as President.

The Ghana armed forces took over the government on January 13, 1972 to do some reparations. Colonel (later general) Ignatius Kutu Acheampong became the head of State and Chairman of the National Redemption Council (NRC). The name NCR was later changed to the Supreme Military Council (SMC). General Acheampong was replaced by General F.W.K. Akuffo in a palace coup in July 1978.

The SMC was overthrown on June 4, 1979, in a mass revolt of junior officers and men of the Ghana armed forces. Following the uprising and Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) was set up under the chairmanship of Jerry John Rawlings. The AFRC was in office for only three months when it handed over their power to the Civilian Administration of Dr.Hilla Limann, leader of the people’s National Party which had won the elections. Before the downward plunge of the country under Limann’s power, it was overthrown December 31, 1981 by Chairman of the Nine-Member Provisional National Ruling Council (PNDC) Jerry John Rawlings. (E, E 562) during hat time, Ghana has improved on their stability of economics, power and culture in the past 25 years.

Just like every country, Ghana has had their share of economic crisis’ in their history. But since the independence of Ghana around twenty years ago, the economics have become stable and increased. The things that helped the stability were natural sources, manufacturing, mining, construction, and electricity. By West African standards, Ghana has a relatively diverse and rich natural resource of base minerals; mostly gold, diamonds, manganese ore, bauxite, and the exploration for oil and gas is ongoing.

The agriculture remains an anchor of the economy, accounting for more than one-third of Gross Domestic Product. (GDP) “Cash” products consist of cocoa, and cocoa products (which typically provide about one-third of exporting) timber products, coconuts and other palm products, shea nuts, and coffee. Ghana also established a successful program of nontraditional agricultural products for export including pineapples, cashews, and peppers. Cassava, yams, plantains, corn, rice, peanuts, millet, and sorghum are the basic foodstuffs. Fish, poultry, and meat are also another way of easy money.

With cocoa prices falling and the country’s foreign exchange reserves disappearing, the government resorted to the supplier credits to finance projects. (Crawfurd, Jacob) By the mid-1960’s, Ghana’s reserves were gone, and the country could not meet repayment schedules. The National Liberation Council (NLC) responded by abandoning unprofitable projects and selling some inefficient state-owned enterprises to private investors. On three occasions, Ghana’s creditors