Figure 1.-Here we see Ghanaian adult and children in the streets during the 1966 coup which removed Nkrumah while he was in Communist North Vietnam. They are carrying the casket of someone killed in the violence. The leaders of the coup including army officers Colonel E.K. Kotoka, Major A.A. Afrifa, Lieutenant General (retired) J.A. Ankra, and Police Inspector General J.W.K. Harlley. They exolained their action by charging that the CPP administration was both abusive and corrupt and undermining democrtic rule. They were also upset by Nkrumah's strong involvement in pan-African politics. Nkrumah advanced the idea that Ghanaian troops should be deployed all over Africa to fight national liberation wars, but he never dus so. While Nkrumah became a major figure in African politics, he at the same time presided over the decline of the Ghanian economy after independence.
The Ghana Empire was located north of modern Ghana but traded with what is now modern Ghana (4th-11th centuries AD). It is at this time that the slave trade began. Arab traders expanded the slave trade. Ghana was one of the early Sub-Saharan locations that Portuguese navigators sailing south reached in an effort to sail south to round the African continent. They and other Europeans were interested in what is now Ghana because the natives offered gold in trade. Gradually slaves became more important. The coastal area of modern Ghana and the first place in sub-Saharan Africa where Europeans arrived to trade--first in gold, later in slaves. West Africa including what is now Ghana became a major source of slaves in the Atlantic slave trade. The British created the Gold Coast colony. Britain granted independence to Ghana (1957). Independent Ghana was primaily the Gold Coast colony, augmented British Togoland, and the British protectorates of Northern Territories and Ashanti. It was the first black African colony to achieve independence among considerable optimism and fanfare. There were grounds for optimisdm. Ghana has considerable mineral wealth. Britain left the country with a good basic education system and a competent civil service as well as basic infrastructure. A series of coups resulted in the suspension of the constitution approved with independence (1981). Military leades banned political parties. A new constitution, restoring multiparty politics (1992). Lt. Jerry Rawlings, head of state under the miitary government since 1981, won presidential elections (1992 and 1996). He was constitutionally prevented from running for a third term (2000). John Kufuor defeated former Vice President Atta Mills in a free and fair election.
Pre-history
Ghana Empire
The Ghana Empire was located north of modern Ghana but traded with what is now modern Ghana (4th-13th centuries AD). It was oneof the great African empires. It is at this time that the Western African slave trade began. Arab traders expanded the slave trade.
Small Kingdoms
We know little about the small African kingdoms that developed berween the Tano and Volta rivers, most of modern Ghana, before the arrival of Europeans (15th century).
European Era
Ghana was one of the early Sub-Saharan locations that Portuguese navigators sailing south reached in an effort to sail south to round the African continent. They and other Europeans were interested in what is now Ghana because the natives offered gold in trade. The Portuguese explorers sailing down the western African coast, reached what is now Ghana (1471). The coastal area of modern Ghana and the first place in sub-Saharan Africa where Europeans arrived to trade--first in gold, later in slaves. The Portuguese built a rudimentary fort and trading post at Elmina (1482). Other stockades followed. The Portuguese and Spanish dominated Europe's maritime outreach. As a foretaste of what was to become, a French buccaneer, marauding off the coast, relieved a Portuguese ship of its cargo (1492). That cargo was gold. The Gold Coast becomes the European name for what is now Ghana. The European trade in gold made possible the rise of development Akwamu. This was the first African state to control a major part part of the coast (early-17th century). Gradually with the rise of sugar plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean, the slave trade became more important. The British created the Gold Coast colony.
Akwamu declined (18th century). This was in part due to the rise of the Ashanti. There capital was inland at Kumasi. By the time the Ashanti Kingdom arose, the Portuguese had been replaced by British, Dutch, and Danish traders, but the Europeans still only operated along the coast close to their fortified trading posts. It is the Ashanti wjo are credited with the crreation of kebnte cloth. A popular Ghanaian legend assugns the creation of kente cloth to Asantehene Osei Tutu, the Asante kingdom's first leader. Tutu named the cloth 'kente', meaning basket, and adopted the fabric as a royal cloth for special occasions. Tutu (1660-1712/17, conquering several small kingdoms and selling captives into slavery--creating the Asante Empire. He accomplished this in part by the wealth assiviated with his particioation in the slave trade. He is credited with expanding the Asante throughout most of Ghana and introducing his subjects to the gold and slave trades along the West African coast. He was heavilyinvolved in the slabe trade. Interesting that Democratic Congressmen kneeling in the Congress were wearing a cloth assocuated with an African leader so strongly involved in the slave trade. The most important trade by this time had become the slave trade slaves. The British came to control the coast, but as they move inland there was resistance. The Ahanti defeated a British forces (1824 and 70s). A British force briefly occupied Kumasi (1874).
Slave Trade
As the enormously profitable sugar industry spread in Brazil and the Caribbean (16th century), an huge demand for slave labor was genrated. The expanding number of European plantations required more and more slaves. Slaves exceeded gold as the principal export commodity along what had come to be called the Gold Coast. West Africa including the Gold Coast became the principal source of slaves for plantations in the Americas. The seemingly insatiable market and the incredible profits to be ganered through the slave trade attracted slavers from all over Europe. The ensuing European maritime conflict that arose among European groups along the coast and inland among competing African kingdoms was fought for control of the slave trade.
The Gold Coast was an important source for slaves. The Ashanti Kindom rose primarily by trading slaves for modern European muskets. Other African tribes without modern arms could not compete with the Ashanti. The Ashanti thus became the great native power. The Portuguese remained dominant along the Gold Coast for nearly a century. Portuguese policy was to lease the right to establish trading posts to individuals or companies. They then established ties with the local chiefs and to exchange trade goods both for rights to ctrade and to buy slaves which the chiefs would deliver provide (16th century). After that first century, the potential profits attrcted oher Europeans. TheDutch were the furst tobarrive in numbers (17th century). They were followed by the English, Danish, and Swedish. They bought licenses from their monarchs to trade overseas. Thus these European competitors began buildng their own forts and trading pots along the Gold Coast. Battles were fought with European rivals as wll as the local chiefs alligned with those rivals. Gradually the tribe to be dlt with was the Ashanti who acquired European muskets. Their king, the Asantehene, sat on a golden stool, and controlled all of what is now central Ghana. The Ashanti experienced a a series of important defeats (1804-14). The Ashanti declined futher as the British began the campaign to end the Atlantic slave trade. As British influence expanded, there were wars with the Ashnti,
World War I
The British formed what eventually became the Ghana Regimentt as the Gold Coast Constabulary (1879). It was recruited from the Hausa Constabulary of southern Nigeria. It wasassined to perform domestic security and police duties in the Gold Coast. The regiment first commited to combat as part of the Ashanti campaign. The Asgant offered the primary resistance to British control of its Gold Coast colony. The Gold Coast Constabulary was renamed the Gold Coast Regiment (1901). It became part of the West African Frontier Force (WAFF) overseen by the British Colonial Office. This was a British field force consisting of several battalions. It was formed (1900) The purpose was to provide security in Britain's West African colonies (Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and Gambia. The Gold Coast Regiment raised five battalions for service during World War I. The did not serve in France. Only a few days after the outbreak of World War I, British and French units invaded German Togoland. German forces were outnumbered but resisted and did not finally surrender until 2 years later (August 1916). The Allies partitoned Togoland for administrative purposes. This was formalized after the War when Togoland became a League of Nations mandate. (After World War II, the British-ruled western Togoland was incorporated into what is now indpendent Ghana.) The Gold Coast Regiment was also deployed to East Africa where German colonial forces resisted the British. After the War, the WAFF was granted received royal patronage as the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) (1928).
Inter-War Era
World War II
The Gold Coast Regiment raised nine battalions during World War II They were deployed in Kenya's Northern Frontier District to oppose the Italaian Army in East Africa. They fought in Somaliland and Ethiopia (1940-41). They were then deployed to India where they fought the Japanese in the Burma Campaign as part of the 2nd (West Africa) Infantry Brigade.
Decolonization
The formal Ghanaian British colonial era was relatively prosperous with little resitance to the colonial administration once the Ashanti were defeated. The British at first made no effort to involve Ghanians in the political processes which was the basic approach throuhout Empire, except for the Dominions. After World War II, British colonial policy began to change. The British granted the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), an organization campaigning for self-government, the right for the African majority to have the leading role in the colony's legislature (1947). Events began to move more rapidly than the British expected. The British policy to involve Ghanians in the political process had only a few years to get established before the country moved toward independnce. The turning point proved to be the return home Kwame Nkrumah (1947). Nkrumah had been living outside of Ghana, studying in America and Britain and becoming involved in radical Marxist politics. What Nkrumah did not acquire in the West was an appreciation of either democracy or capitalism--something that an entire generation of Africa's first genertion of independence leaders shared. Ghanians invited Nkrumah back to the Gold Coast to act as chairman and general secretary of the UGCC. By this time, Ghanians wanted a share in executive power.
Britain granted independence to Ghana (1957). Nkrumah led Ghana to independence and served as its first prime minister and president. Independent Ghana was primaily the British Gold Coast colony, enlarged by British Togoland, and the British protectorates of Northern Territories and Ashanti. Ghana was the first black sub-Saharan colony to achieve independence. Independence was celebrated with considerable optimism and fanfare. And there was good reason for that optimism. Ghana had a strong economy. The colony was Britain's richest black African colony. Independent Ghana has considerable mineral wealth. Britain left Ghana with a well established education system and a competent civil service. There was also basic infrastructure. Under Nkrumah the economy began to decline. He became an important advocate of Pan-Africanism. He was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity. He was highly critucal of Both Britain and America during the Cold War. The Soviets heaped parise upon him, awarding him the Lenin Peace Prize (1962). A military coup removed him from power (1966). In Nkrumah defens, a lot of Europeans were attracted by the syreen call oof socialism at the yime--although dewerbt Communism. And even today the majority Semicratic Party in America has become a soci;list party despite te obvious economic evidence that scialism does not work. Nkrumah was in North Vietnam at the time, spporting the Comunist conquest of South Viernam. He never returned to Ghana, but continued to be aupporter of African unity. He was granted refuge in neigboring Guinea. There President Ahmed S�kou Tour� shared his left-wing vision and like Nkrumah presided overthe economic decline of his country. Nkrumah in exile wrote extensively about class struggle and revolutionary warfare and very little about economics that would develop Ghana and raise incomes. For Nkrumah, Tour� and others like Castro, Communist revolutionary struggle automatically created a prosperous economy. The economic failure of the Soviet Union was not yet apparent. In Fact the Soviet Union looked lik an enormoussuccess. A series of coups in Ghana eventually resulted in the suspension of the 1957 independence constitution (1981). The heady optimism of independence was proven unfounded. This began the Nkrumah chaotic rule amd mismanagement of the economy. Military goverments banned political parties. A new constitution, finally restoring multi-party politics (1992). Lt. Jerry Rawlings, the head of state under the miitary government beginning in 1981, won the presidential elections (1992 and 1996). The constitutionally prohibited him from running for a third term (2000). John Kufuor defeated former Vice President Atta Mills in a free democratic election.
