Ghana

By Yende Mangum

• Ghana Map...................................................................................3• Ghana's History............................................................................4• Regions in Ghana.........................................................................5• Governing Ghana and It's Economy...............................................6• Spiritual Religion...........................................................................7• Shelter.........................................................................................8• Family Life...................................................................................9• Greetings & Gestures.................................................................10 • Foods........................................................................................11• Clothing.....................................................................................12• Sports & Entertainment...............................................................13• Customs & Celerations...............................................................14• Glossary....................................................................................15• Index..........................................................................................16• Bibliography................................................................................17

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Table Of Contents

Ghana Map

    (8o N 1o W latitude) West Africa. Ghana's bordering countries are Togo,Cote D'ivore, and Burkina Faso.

                                                                             A map of Ghana's regions

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Ghana's History

1471-                       1957-                      2007-   Portuguese            The Gold Coast       Ghana turns 50      explorers                becomes Ghana     years oldare first europeans to reach Ghana __________________________________________________                       1874-                           1961-                   The British declare          construction                    the Gold Coast a              begins on the                     colony                               Akosombo Dam                                    

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Regions in Ghana   Land Ho! In Ghana there are five geographical regions: coastal plains, tropical forests, The Akwapim-Togo ranges, The Volta Basin, and high plains. The coastal plains border the south coast, which is a mix of beaches and lagoons. There are actually no natural harbors. Along the east coast the land rises to form ridges and valleys. The tropical forests are located north of the coastal plains, which are divided into two subregions: the Asante Uplands, and the Kwahu Plateau. Lots of rain ends up in these forests. The Akwapim-Togo ranges also lie along Ghana's eastern coast. It is home to Mount Afadajo, Ghana's highest peak at 2,887 feet tall. The Volta Basin takes up most of central Ghana. People like to draw on the poor soil here. It is a savanna; grassland with very few trees, and the driest part of Ghana. The Volta Basin goes beyond Ghana's borders!

                                The Volta Basin

                            5                                         

Governing Ghana and It's Economy

    Golden dreams! Ghana's government is constitutional democracy. There are governmental executives, governmental legislatives, and governmental judicials. The president's name is John Atta Mills. Ghana's monetary unit is a cedi, which contains 100 pesewas. Oil is produced mostly in the coastal plains, and cacao beans are manufactured around the forest area, along with heaping amounts of gold. Gold has been mined for hundreds of years, and yet still a lot remains. Corn is produced throughout Ghana. After all, Ghana's economy is mostly based on agriculture(growing crops). Ghana's main electricity supply is the Akosombo Dam.

Ghanaians work on computers mostly at internet cafes. 

                                     gold from mines         

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Spiritual Religion

    Ghana is a spiritual magnet! Ghana is 24% Pentecostal/Charismatic, 18.6% Protestant, 16% Islam- oldest Mosque dates to 13th century, 15% Catholic, 11.1% Other Christian- Churches built in 15th century, 8.5% Traditional Religions- all with different names for God, 6.1% no religion, 0.7% other religion. Islam's 5 pillars:Shahada, Salat, Zakat, Sawm, and Hajj. There are over 50 diferrent ethnic groups in Ghana as well, but still including 98.5% Black African. Ghana is in fact 69% Christian.  

                                               Larabanga                                            7     Mosque

Shelter

    Rainy day! 60% of Ghanaians live in villages. Village homes usually have one large room, and are usually made out of mud, grass, and palm leaves. They can also be made out of cement blocks. Sometimes, wives draw geometric patterns on walls. Also, surprisingly, two families might share a house. These homes are also part of the reason that apartments are not very popular. Most villages are located near animal reserves. There are also two-story city houses that seem much more appealing than village homes.

                                        Village Home

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Family Life     Work hard, live well! Ghanaians young and old have lots of things to do: collect water from wells, farming, collecting firewood, cooking by hand, buying or growing crops, fishing, logging, replanting trees, mining gold and diamonds, collecting cacao beans, manufacturing all sorts of metals, sweeping compounds, all of that plus more is what happens daily in Ghana. There are also lots of events to attend and holidays to plan for, like, for instance, Africa Day. Four languages are spoken throughout Ghana, but thankfully, English is the main language. I'm pretty sure that it would still be pretty hard for me to get around Ghana and communicate with other people from tribes.                       

                                                       cacao bean

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Greetings & Gestures

   Hi! In Ghana, handshakes are done by using your middle finger and thumb to grasp the other person's middle finger, and shaking it. You can also greet other people by saying: ayeekooo, wazooloo, anuld, good morning, or good afternoon.Doing certain things with your left hand is considered impolite, knocking your hands together palms up means please, and curling fingers while moving hands side to side means come here.

        man communicating come here with hands

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Foods

   Chow time! Fufu is a very common food, which gets mixed into balls. There are fruits and vegetables in most meals. Vegetable stew is common as well as: coconuts, cassava, fried plantains, bananas, pineapple, cocoa beans, and sometimes a little sugarcane treat, because sweets aren't popular with meals.

                                                fufu

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Clothing

    Most Ghanaians wear what we would wear normally, but sometimes they weave kente cloth to make clothes called nnatmas, which are sort of like togas. Ghanaians also wear adinkra cloth/fabric, or dashikis.

                             made of                              kente cloth  

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Sports & Entertainment

       Goal! Ghanaians play lots of sports. Still, soccer is the most popular. Actually, soccer is the most popular sport in most, if not every African country! Ghana's soccer team is called the Black Stars. Ghanaians also box, do track and field events, compete in summer olympics, go swimming, play golf, tennis, and field hockey. But a popular board game in Ghana is Mancala. Ghanaians don't normally use marbles, though. They use seeds, stones, or beans. Mancala is also called: kalaha, bao, chisolo, oware, awari, palanguli, and wari, in other countries.                                        Black Stars

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Customs & Celebrations

    Ghanaians go to lots of events. Funerals, Marriages, all sorts of other events too! Ghanaians like to play soccer and a game called Drop-Peter-Drop. Mancala is sort of a family game as well. They show lots of respect by putting dead people in fantasy coffins.               Fish coffin                                      Airplane coffin

                                       Coke bottle coffin  

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GlossaryAfrica: noun, The continent on which Ghana is locatedcacao bean: noun, seed of a cacao treecompound: noun, homes shared by a familyGhanaian: noun, someone who lives in Ghana kente: noun,  colorful fabric of Ghanian origin, often worn as a symbol of African-american prideMancala: noun, board game with 2-4 rows of pits in which seeds or stones are placed and the opponents try to capture themmanufactured: verb, made or produced by hand or machinery region: noun, a district without respect to boundaries or extentsubregion: noun, a division or subdivision of a region, especially zoogeographical regionstoga: noun, the loose outer garment worn by ancient romans in public 

Index

Africa, 3,7,9,13cacao bean, 6,9,11compound, 9Ghanaian, 6,8,9,12,13,14kente, 12Mancala, 13,14manufactured, 6,9region, 5subregion, 5toga, 12

Bibliography

WEBSITES: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/ http://www.factmonster.com/http://culturegrams.com/ BOOKS:  Blauer, Ettagale and Laure, Jason, Ghana, published in 2010 by Scholastic  Davis,Lucile, Ghana, published in 1998 by Social Studies Collections