Ghanafacts

media type="youtube" key="wRNT93e2CDA" height="344" width="425" Ghana lies by the Gulf of Guinea in the West Africa and boarders to Burkina Faso in the north and Togo in the east. The capital city is Accra, and lies in the south. The small country (238 537 km2) is divided into ten regions: //Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Central, Eastern, Grater Accra, Northern,// //Upper East, Upper West, Volta// and //Western//. Every region has their own minister. Further on you can read about the country’s geography, inhabitants and school system to get a little insight on the facts of the country. media type="youtube" key="ZkQzWo4nEFo" width="425" height="350"
 * __ Ghana __****__ – a short introduction __**

** Geography ** : Ghana lays a few degrees from Equator. Therefore it has a warm climate all year, even in the rainy parts of the year. The south has two rainy seasons, and the north has only one. Obviously the south also has more rain than the north with almost 1500 mm per year. Ghana has a tropical climate which the nature is marked by. They have some tropical rainforest, as you can see coloured dark green on the pictures below, but most of it was cut off in the twentieth centrury. The lighter green is also different kinds of wood forests. The areas around the rainforest exists mostly of savannah, which is land covered with low bushes. The blue spot on the map is Lake Volta. This is one of the largest artificial lakes with its 8500 km2. Ghana has also an abundant plant- and animal life; you can study some of them on the small video above.

// Dark green: tropical rainforest. Lighter green: forests. Blue: water. Grey/ beige: savannah. Red: places where there lives larger populations.

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// The green area is tropical rainforest while the yellow is the savannah. // // Sources of reference for the maps: [|www.globalis.no] // ** The population ** : There are 23 382 850 inhabitants in Ghana, which means that they live very close up to each other in this small country. It lives ca 98 people per km2, and the majority is settled near the ocean. The inhabitants are separated into 75 groups with different language, culture and traditions. Naturally, there are also many different religions in Ghana, but the most widespread is a combination between Islam and Christendom. This causes a lot of conflicts and therefore the authorities needs to try to make these differences as small as possible. Ghana was long known for its good education system, but many other African countries have been improving lately. Today 80% of the population goes at the 8-year primary and secondary school, but only 37% continue on the comprehensive school. The country has five universities. About 27% of the adults are illiterates, but international organisations are helping to get this number down. You can read more about the Ghanaian population’s condition under the topic: “Differences and similarities between Britain and Ghana.” The folk music plays an important role in the people’s daily life. The country has a music history that goes back to year 1000, and the drums have always been essential. On the movie below you can se an example. ** Industry and commerce ** : After the time of the colonies Ghana was a leading country in Africa on several areas; for example export of raw materials, economics and education. They tried hard to keep the good standard with different investments, but this was the reason why foreign exchange quotation was falling. They are still struggling with the consequences, although the economics are starting to stabilize. Today they are depended on good prices on export of cocoa beans and gold. Over 50% of the population is working with farming with forestry and fishing. Do you want to read about Ghana’s history? Click here.