GHANA, FLAG OF

horizontally striped red-yellow-green national flag with a central black star. The width-to-length ratio of the flag is 2 to 3. When Kwame Nkrumah organized the Convention People's Party in 1949 to work toward more self-government for the native African peoples of the British Gold Coast, a flag was developed for the movement. A simple horizontal tricolour of red-white-green, it became well known throughout the Gold Coast as a symbol of modernization and self-reliance. Self-government was introduced in 1952, and independence was granted on March 6, 1957. On that day a national flag, based on the Convention People's Party flag, was hoisted throughout the land. The country also acquired a new name, based on the empire of Ghana, which had been a powerful and rich state from the 7th to the 13th century. Ghana, as the first of the sub-Saharan African states to achieve independence, took a leading role in the movement toward African liberation and unity. Its new flag retained the red and green stripes of the old, but it changed the white to yellow and added a black five-pointed star, referred to as the lodestar of African freedom. The red symbolizes the independence struggle, yellow the wealth of the country, and green its forests and farms. President Nkrumah imposed single-party rule in 1964 but was overthrown in 1966. During those two years the red-white-green party flag (with a black star) was in use, although the end of Nkrumah's rule led to a reversion to the flag of independence with its yellow stripe, hoisted again on February 28, 1966. Whitney Smith History Prehistoric era As elsewhere in Africa, the climate of Ghana varied during the Pleistocene epoch. With greater rainfall, the forest spread northward and humans retreated toward the Sahara; when rainfall diminished, they occupied even the present forest. Apart from some pebble tools from high river terraces, the first industry is Late Chellean in the southeast. In the succeeding pluvial era, the Acheulean culture is lacking save from the extreme north. With increases in aridity, humans reappeared, bringing Late Acheulean and Sangoan cultures, probably successively. They moved along the Togo mountain range from the Niger River. Sangoan tools abound in Transvolta and around Accra and extend to Kumasi; the west remained forest and was rarely visited. The Sangoan culture waned in the Gamblian pluvial era. At its close there appears a Lupemban culture, probably from the desiccating Sahara; it occurs in basal gravels of valleys carved during the preceding pluvial period. In central Ghana its tools are shapely, near the coast crude and formless. Mesolithic traditions lingered into the succeeding subpluvial era. Thereafter excavations at Legon yielded quartz microliths made on small pebbles. Up-country these occur on silt terraces deposited in the preceding wet phase as far as the Niger. This culture is independent of the Saharan Mesolithic. The latest Mesolithic period has stone hoes, quartz beads, and other Congo types; pottery seems absent. This stage dates to the post-Flandrian marine regression (end of 2nd millennium BC?). Several Neolithic cultures seem identifiable. They contain polished axes and usually coarse pottery. The most distinctive appears around Kintampo and in the Accra plains; it had clay houses, Saharan chert microliths, shale arm rings, and scored terra-cottas like flattened cigars. A Neolithic culture more in Mesolithic tradition was excavated near Abetifi. Evidence is lacking for the introduction of iron. Polished stone was commonly used until the 16th century, especially in the forest. Trade in greenstone for ax manufacture flourished. In Transvolta and the west greenstone hoes are common. No satisfactory chronology has been established, nor can existing tribes be identified before the 17th century. Of excavated sites, Nsuta, with decorated pottery and bobbin beads, should be early medieval; the Sekondi village and cemetery, with fine pottery, stone axes, and quartz and shell beads, lasted until Portuguese times. In the north heavily decorated pottery continued later on open sites and mounds indicating clay houses. European imports are unknown before the 17th century. Oliver Davies The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Early traditions The modern state of Ghana is named after the ancient African empire that flourished until the 13th century and was situated close to the Sahara in the western Sudan. The centre of ancient Ghana lay about 500 miles to the northwest of the nearest part of the modern state, and it is tolerably certain that no part of the latter lay within its borders. The claim that an appreciable proportion of modern Ghana's people derived from emigrants from the ancient empire cannot be substantiated with the evidence available at present. Written sources relate only to the period since European contact with the Gold Coasti.e., modern Ghanabegan in the 15th century, or to Muslim contacts with ancient Ghana from about the 8th to the 13th century. Many modern Ghanaian peoples possess well-preserved oral traditions, but even though some of these may reach as far back as the 14th century, this is after the final disappearance of ancient Ghana, and such very early traditions often present considerable problems of interpretation. Little progress has so far been made in linking the surviving traditions with the available archaeological evidence. The economy The economy is a mixture of private and public enterprise. National income is derived primarily from agricultural and mineral output and only to a limited extent from manufacturing and services. Most of the cash crops and mineral products are for export. Before independence the government's role was confined mainly to the provision of such basic utilities as water, electricity, railways, roads, and postal services. Agriculture, commerce, banking, and industry were almost entirely in private hands, with foreign interests controlling the greater share in all of them except agriculture. Shortly after independence, the government set out to extend its control over the economy by setting up a large number of state-owned enterprises in agriculture and industry. In order to make up for the local shortage of capital and entrepreneurial skills, measures were adopted to attract foreign investors to operate independently or in partnership with the government. These policies did not achieve the desired results because of poor planning and corrupt administration. By 1966, when the administration of President Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown, the heavy overseas borrowing upon which the government had relied to support its economic programs had dissipated almost all of the country's overseas reserves and had produced external and internal debts totaling some $1 billion. Subsequent governments have sought to deal with the adverse balance of payments, to arrest inflation, to secure a rescheduling of overseas debts, to increase agricultural productivity, and to establish industrial development on a rational basis, as well as to save scarce foreign exchange by encouraging exports of locally manufactured goods. Between 1966 and 1972 there was a marked contraction in governmental involvement in economic matters. The government continued to provide basic utilities and remained the largest single employer of labour. After the coup of 1972 policymakers returned to the concept of a centralized economy. The considerable debt owed to four British companies was repudiated, imports were cut, industrial projects abandoned after the fall of Nkrumah were resuscitated, and a policy of increased nationalization and state control was begun. In 1974, after a two-year suspension of foreign loans and aid, the government agreed on a schedule for the repayment of its debts. This was accompanied by a more receptive policy toward investment by developed countries, though political instability resulted in a number of erratic economic policies. Ghana's external debt and balance of trade deficit increased and led to a devaluation of the cedi (the national currency) in 1978, a currency conversion in 1979, and a reduction of interest rates and demonetization of lower-value cedi notes in 1982. Under the restructuring program sponsored by the World Bank in the late 1980s foreign companies and private entrepreneurs were encouraged to invest in private or joint private and public ventures and to assist in the rehabilitation of the economy; the trend was toward increased privatization of the economy. A large part of government revenue is derived from various taxes, including a duty on cocoa, import duty, customs and excise duties, sales tax, income tax, property tax, and other taxes. Tax concessions are available to certain classes of business, and special incentives are offered to those generating foreign exchange through exports. In the late 1980s measures were instituted to widen the tax net so as to increase revenue, and subsidies on many goodsespecially food items and imported fueland on public utilities were drastically reduced. Despite attempts at reform, excessive bureaucratic controls and inefficiency continue to hamper trade and orderly economic development and to foster a flourishing underground economy. In addition, the massive devaluations of the cedi (from 1.02 cedis to the U.S. dollar in 1970 to 227 cedis to the U.S. dollar in 1989) have had mixed effects on both trade and the cost of living. Although there is a minimum wage for workers, the gap in wages between the lowest-paid and well-paid workers is still wide. This disparity, coupled with rising living costs and instability in the national currency, impose severe hardships on a large section of the working population. The trade union movement played a role in the struggle for self-government, and after independence the government, recognizing the importance of the movement as a political force, sought to make it a more direct instrument of policy. All trade unions in the country were brought under the authority of the Trade Union Congress, which was virtually an integral part of the government; this curtailed the freedom of workers to bargain with employers and the government. After the fall of the Nkrumah government, the monopoly of the Trade Union Congress was abolished and other unions were able to function. In 1972 the Trade Union Congress was revived, but the military government in 1982 once again suppressed its activity. Resources Although Ghana has a wide range of minerals, only a fewe.g., gold, diamonds, manganese, and bauxiteare exploited. These minerals are found mostly in the southern part of the country. The gold industry, with an unbroken history dating from the 15th century, is the oldest; the others are of 20th-century originthe working of manganese dating from 1915, diamonds from 1919, and bauxite from 1942. There are important reserves of limestone and iron ore, although they are not exploited. There is an aluminum rolling mill at Tema. In 1970 oil was discovered offshore between Saltpond and Cape Coast. Although this discovery was initially classified as noncommercial, the steep world oil price increases of 197374 caused the government to reclassify it as commercial in 1974 and to undertake development. In 1974 and 1980 substantial amounts of natural gas were discovered offshore to the south and west of Cape Three Points. Oil production in the Saltpond area began in 1978, but it has proved disappointing; all crude oil is exported in order to reduce the country's foreign-trade deficit. Further explorations of a more comprehensive nature were begun in the late 1980s. Salt, in which the country is self-sufficient with a surplus for export, is obtained from the sea and lagoons. There are also extensive supplies of building stone, gravel, and sand. Biological resources are extensive. The soil and climate favour a wide range of crops. The most important is cocoa, of which Ghana is a leading world producer. Timber and the crops of the forest zone constitute additional important biological resources. Yams and such cereals as rice and millet are produced primarily in the northern savanna zone; cattle are also raised there. The forests yield shea nuts and kola nuts. Ghana's offshore waters are rich in fish, and the creation of Lake Volta added another important source of fish for the domestic market. Many of Ghana's rivers have the requisite regimes and rates of flow to permit exploitation for hydroelectric power. The Akosombo Dam on the Volta River and a second dam a few miles downstream at Kpong have a combined electrical capacity of more than one million kilowatts. Electricity from Akosombo meets most of the domestic requirements, leaving a surplus for sale to Togo and Benin. The land Relief and drainage Relief throughout Ghana is generally low, with altitudes nowhere exceeding 3,000 feet (900 metres). The southwestern, northwestern, and extreme northern parts of the country consist of a dissected peneplaina land surface worn down by erosion to a nearly flat plain, later uplifted and again cut by erosion into hills and valleys or into flat uplands separated by valleys; it is made of Precambrian rocks (from 570 million to 3.8 billion years old). Most of the remainder of the country consists of Paleozoic deposits (from 245 to 570 million years old), which are thought to rest on older rocks. The Paleozoic sediments are composed mostly of beds of shales (laminated sediments consisting mostly of particles of clay) and sandstones in which strata of limestone occur in places. They occupy a large area called the Voltaian Basin in the north-central part of the country where the altitude rarely exceeds 500 feet. The basin is dominated by Lake Volta, an artificial lake that extends far into the central part of the country behind the Akosombo Dam and covers 3,275 square miles. Along the north and south, and to some extent along the west, the uplifted edges of the basin give rise to narrow plateaus between 1,000 and 2,000 feet high, bordered by impressive scarps. The most outstanding are the Kwahu (Mampong) Scarp in the south and the Gambaga Scarp in the north. Surrounding the basin on all of its sides, except in the east, is the dissected Precambrian peneplain, which rises to elevations of 500 to 1,000 feet above sea level and contains several distinct ranges as high as 2,000 feet. Along the eastern edge of the Voltaian Basin, and extending from the Togo border to the sea immediately west of Accra, is a narrow zone of folded Precambrian rocks running northeast to southwest, forming the Akwapim-Togo Ranges, which vary in height from 1,000 to 3,000 feet. The highest points in Ghana are found there, including Mount Afadjato (2,903 feet; 885 metres), Mount Djebobo (2,874 feet), and Mount Torogbani (2,861 feet), all situated east of the Volta River near the Togo border. These ranges are part of the Togo-Atakora Mountains, which extend northward into Togo and Benin. The southeastern corner of the country, between the Akwapim-Togo Ranges and the sea, consists of the gently rolling Accra Plains, which are underlain by some of the oldest Precambrian rocks knownmostly gneisses (coarse-grained rocks in which bands containing granular minerals alternate with bands containing micaceous minerals); in places they rise above the surface to form inselbergs (prominent steep-sided hills left after erosion). The only extensive areas of young rocks less than 136 million years old are in the wide, lagoon-fringed delta of the Volta, about 50 miles (80 kilometres) east of Accra, and in the extreme southwest of the country, along the Axim coast. In the east the predominant rocks are less than 65 million years old, though there is a patch of Cretaceous sediments (from 66.4 to 144 million years old) near the GhanaTogo border. To the west of Axim, near the Cte d'Ivoire frontier, the rocks date to the Cretaceous period. The intervening coastal zone between eastern and western extremes contains patches of Devonian sediments (from 360 to 408 million years old). With the older and more resistant rocks of the Precambrian peneplain, these form a low, picturesque coastline of sandy bays and rocky promontories. The drainage system is dominated by the Volta River basin, which includes Lake Volta. Most of the other rivers, such as the Pra, the Ankobra, the Tano, and a number of smaller ones, flow directly south into the sea from the watershed formed by the Kwahu Plateau, which separates them from the Volta drainage system. South of Kumasi, in the south-central part of the country, is Ghana's only true natural lakeBosumtwilying in a deep basin without any outlet to the sea. It is believed to be of volcanic origin, although theories of a possible meteorite origin have also been advanced. Along the coast are numerous lagoons, most of them formed at the mouths of small streams. Over much of the surface of Ghana, the rocks are weathered, and great spreads of laterite (red, leached, iron-bearing soil) and lesser spreads of bauxite and manganese are found on the flat tops of hills and mountains. Although the movements of the Earth's crust that produced the basic geologic structure of the country have now virtually ceased, periodic earthquakes occur, especially near Accra along the eastern foot of the Akwapim-Togo Ranges, where there is a major fault line. Soils Throughout the country, weathering, leaching, and the formation of laterite hard pans (hard impervious layers, composed chiefly of iron and aluminum oxides cemented by relatively insoluble materials) by capillary movement (the movement of water containing mineral salts to the surface) and evaporation, are common processes that vary in importance according to the characteristics of each locality. Leaching is more pronounced in the wet south, while the formation of laterite is more widespread in the drier north. In general, most soils are formed in place from parent rock material that has been subjected to prolonged erosion and consequently has limited fertility. In the forest zone the soils are mostly lateritic. They are subdivided into relatively fertile and less acidic ochrosols (red, brown, and yellow-brown, relatively well-drained soils) in areas of moderate rainfall and into more acidic and less fertile oxysols in the extreme southwest, where annual rainfall exceeds 65 inches. Ochrosols occur over considerable areas in the coastal and northern savanna zones. As in the forest zone, they are the best soils for agriculture. The coastal savanna zone has an abundance of soil types, including tropical black earths, tropical gray earths, acid vleisols, and sodium vleisols. Except for the tropical black earths, known locally as Akuse clays, most of these soils are of little importance agriculturally. The Akuse clays fill a broad zone across the coastal savanna plains; although heavy and intractable, they respond well to cropping under irrigation and mechanical cultivation. Because of their intrinsic poverty in nutrients, most of the soils are heavily dependent upon the humus supplied by the vegetation cover. There is, thus, a delicate balance between vegetation and soil fertility, which may be upset by uncontrolled burning or overuse. The people Ethnic and linguistic groups Ethnically, the people of Ghana may be said to belong to one broad group within the African family, but there is a large variety of tribal, or subethnic, units. On the basis of language, it is possible to distinguish at least 75 different tribes. Many of these are very small, and only 10 of them are numerically significant. The largest groups are the Akan, Mole-Dagbani, Ewe, Ga-Adangme (Ga-Adangbe), and Gurma. Despite its tribal variety, there were no serious tribal dissensions when Ghana became independent. Tribal consciousness persists in many areas, however, and at times tensions have erupted, especially in northern Ghana, into violent clashes with many fatalities. At all levels in government and in public life, an effort has been made to play down tribal differences, a policy that has been helped by the adoption of English as the official language. Practically all the present tribes are believed to have moved into the country within the last 700 to 1,000 years in a series of migrations from the north, with the Ewe and Ga-Adangme, who occupy the southeastern corner of the country, entering from the east and southeast. Religious groups Nearly two-thirds of the population is Christian, about one-sixth is Muslim, and one-third adheres to the traditional tribal religions. Although the indigenous religions are widespread and deep-rooted, they lack a systematic body of doctrines. Though they are based, in general, on belief in the existence of a supreme being, a number of lesser deities associated with various natural phenomena are recognized. Considerable prominence is given to dead ancestors, who are considered to be ever-present, capable of influencing the course of events for the living, and capable of serving as intermediaries between the living and the gods. Christianity has steadily gained ground at the expense of the indigenous religions. Christian influence is most dominant in the southern part of the country, while Islam is strongest in the extreme north and in the larger urban centres, which contain some immigrant populations from Muslim regions of western Africa. Since the 1950s many spiritualist churches claiming adherence to Christianity have appeared. The main divisions of the Christian church, however, are still the Roman Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, and smaller denominations.