by
Caitlyn B

NATIONAL FLAG OF GHANA:

LOCATION:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GHANA

The European nation that colonized Ghana was the Portugal. The Portuguese built fortresses along a place that was called the Gold Coast. The reason so many fortresses were built there was because the Portuguese were looking for gold. The Portuguese began a trade for the gold and started using slaves to help them. They eventually took over the slave and gold trade, as well as trade for ivory and salt.

I think colonization hurt the indigenous people. One way it helped the Portuguese was because they got very good trade, but the indigenous people became slaves.    They traded gold, ivory, slaves, and salt. They were a very rich and powerful country.

Ghana got its independence in March, 1957 . Kwame Nkrumah helped Ghana get its independence. He and others had a pro-independence party and more people joined and they took over.

Once Ghana got its independence it faced several problems. They were in debt. They had held half a billion dollars as a reserve, but then ten years later they were a billion dollars in debt. They had to have foreign checks and money sent in to help pay off the debt. Another problem they faced was that during their debt their leader Kwame Nkrumah left and never came back.

Ghana has been a very good country since then. They have good education, health, and housing. Even though they have all that stuff they still face serious problems. One of them is that in the north area there are bad droughts. The droughts caused poverty and malnutrition. Luckily there are a lot of charities there that help.

I think if Ghana would have never been colonized it wouldn’t be as put together as it is today. Its government wouldn’t be nearly as stable as it is today. The education system probably wouldn’t be very good nor the amount of shelter for everyone.

Works Cited

Flag and map courtesy of Microsoft Clipart G

Africanet. www.africanet.com/

Levy, Patricia.  Cultures of the World: Ghana

Lonely Planet. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/

Infoplease. http://www.infoplease.com