$Unique_ID{COW01434} $Pretitle{353} $Title{Ghana Chapter 7C. Scholarship and Intellectual Activity} $Subtitle{} $Author{} $Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army} $Subject{ghana published library news accra corporation information research libraries national} $Date{1970} $Log{Table 5.*0143401.tab Table 6.*0143402.tab } Country: Ghana Book: Area Handbook for Ghana Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army Date: 1970 Chapter 7C. Scholarship and Intellectual Activity Until the 1950s the country's intellectual community consisted largely of expatriates and a small number of Ghanaians who had studied overseas. The first institution of higher education in the country was founded in 1948, followed by a second in 1951, and a third in 1962. During the 1950s and 1960s a gradually increasing number of graduates was turned out, augmented to some extent by the return of others educated overseas. It was estimated that by the beginning of 1971 more than 15,000 persons possessed degrees. The total degree holders proportionate to the country's population at that time was far greater than in any other black African country. Most of the country's practical research was being carried out as of 1970 under the national Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a statutory corporation subsidized through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. This organization was set up in 1968, but its general concepts date back to the National Research Council of Ghana, founded in 1959 and subsequently merged in 1963 with the Ghana Academy of Learning. The main purposes of CSIR were the encouragement of scientific and industrial research significant to the country's development and control over the research activities of a number of attached research institutes and units. As of 1969 nine such CSIR institutes were in operation, concerned with research on animals and aquatic biology (at Achimota); cocoa (at Tafo); crops, soil, forest products, and building and roads (all at Kumasi); and foods, standards, and industrial research (at Accra). In addition, a unit conducting research on water resources was located at Accra. Other research was underway at the University of Ghana, including the Institute of African Studies and the Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research, and at agricultural research stations at Kade, Kpong, and Nungua. Some research in such fields as culture and history was also conducted individually outside the country's universities and by such organizations as the Arts Council of Ghana and the Museum and Monuments Board. Some fifteen to twenty learned and professional organizations were in existence in 1970, most of them founded during the 1950s. Included was the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, established originally in 1959 as the Ghana Academy of Learning. This society had the general aim of promoting the study, extension, and dissemination of knowledge of the arts and sciences. Affiliated with it was the Encyclopaedia Africana Secretariat, set up in 1962 to coordinate the production of an encyclopaedia of African life and history. As of 1969, committees working on the project under the secretariat represented some twenty-eight African countries. A number of journals and professional publications appeared regularly, including the proceedings of the academy and various publications of CSIR and its attached research institutes. Several scholarly publications were also issued by the country's universities and by other organizations, such as the Economic Society of Ghana and the Historical Society of Ghana. These provided opportunities for persons in the intellectual community to publish the results of their research. Ghanaian materials have also been published in international journals, and a number of persons have achieved international repute, including K. A. Busia, sociologist; E. A. Boateng, geographer; J. K. Nketia, specialist in the arts; and Adu Boahen, historian. Public Information Article 22 of the country's new Constitution adopted in August 1969 guaranteed freedom of expression, including the receiving and imparting of information without interference. Moreover, under the terms of the article, equal opportunities and facilities for the presentation of opposing or differing views were to be afforded by any national medium for the dissemination of any kind of information to the public. As a safeguard. Article 48 empowered the president, in consultation with the Council of State, to appoint the chairman and other members of the governing body of any statutory corporation concerned with radio, television, the press, or other media for mass communication or information. The generally uninhibited nature of news reporting in the press after the overthrow of the Nkrumah government in 1966 was followed by promulgation by the National Liberation Council in late 1966 of decrees concerned with the spreading and publication of rumors. In January 1968 the Press Council was established, essentially for the maintenance of press standards. The council was independent of government control and concerned not only with complaints against the press and journalists but also with complaints by the information media against the conduct of individuals and organizations toward the press. In April 1968 the National Liberation Council apparently considered the presentation and general tone of the press considerably improved and rescinded the 1966 decrees. Further liberalization of the government's position toward the press occurred in early 1970, when the National Assembly repealed the newspaper licensing act of 1963. This act, passed during the Nkrumah period, was considered a device of the former president for controlling press activities. Newspapers at the end of the 1960s were faced with considerable economic problems, in part related to the size of the literate public and circulation. For instance, the Evening News, which had been published since 1955, ceased publication at the beginning of 1969 reportedly because of poor circulation and lack of advertising. The New Ashanti Times, published since 1948 by the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, stopped printing at the end of January 1970 partly because of heavy losses also connected with circulation. The risks involved at the beginning of the 1970s made the start of privately financed newspapers difficult. With few exceptions, the field was left largely to government-owned newspapers. Newspapers Three English-language dailies were published in Accra in 1970 (see table 5). Two of them, the Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Times, were government owned. The Evening Standard, the third newspaper, was privately published and supported the opposition party (see ch. 9, Political Dynamics and Values). A fourth daily, the privately owned Pioneer, was published in Kumasi. The Pioneer had been suppressed between 1962 and the military coup in 1966. The Daily Graphic had a reported daily circulation in 1970 of about 121,000; the Ghanaian Times, about 57,000. The circulation figures for the Evening Standard and Pioneer were not available. About a dozen weeklies were also published. The largest was the Sunday Mirror, the Sunday edition of the Daily Graphic, that had a circulation in 1970 of about 103,000. Also published weekly was the Spokesman, a periodical highly critical of the government. Several of the weeklies were specialized publications, including the Radio and TV Times, issued by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation; India News, published by the Indian High Commission; and Business Weekly. The Daily Graphic, Ghanaian Times, and Sunday Mirror were published in tabloid format; the Pioneer, in standard newspaper format. The Daily Graphic ran to sixteen pages and contained a variety of features. Page 1 carried mostly domestic news, with the more important foreign news on page 2. The two center pages usually contained special feature stories, and two pages, 14 and 15, were regularly devoted to sports. Regular features also were a classified advertising section, a horoscope, letters to the editor, and two comic strips. The Sunday Mirror also was made up of sixteen pages. It carried fewer general news items but included a review of the week's foreign news. The center two pages were frequently devoted to women's features. Sports also received considerable space, and a horoscope was given. Periodicals Some forty different periodicals were published within the country in 1970, most of them in English. Eight periodicals were published twice monthly, including six in various Ghanaian languages put out by the Bureau of Ghana Languages of the Ministry of Information. Also published twice monthly was the English-language Legon Observer. Put out by the Legon Society on National Affairs, it was an independent political journal that in general had a relatively unbiased approach toward national political issues (see ch. 9, Political Dynamics and Values). [See Table 5.: Newspapers and Periodicals Published in Ghana, 1970] Drum magazine, a monthly with an estimated circulation of about 42,700, was the most widely read domestic periodical. Flamingo Magazine, published in Great Britain and distributed throughout West Africa, had the largest circulation, however, with a total estimated at 100,000 copies a month. This magazine was a family publication of the glossy type containing articles on entertainment, sports, general-interest news, and history, as well as features for women. The Ministry of Information published a number of monthly magazines. One-the New Ghana-was designed primarily for distribution overseas by the embassies. News Gathering The principal news collecting and disseminating agency, at the start of 1971, was the Ghana News Agency Corporation, a state-owned enterprise established in 1957 and incorporated in 1960. It constituted a full-fledged national news operation and had also established international contacts. Its head office in Accra was connected by teleprinter with branches throughout the country, including Cape Coast, Koforidua, Kumasi, Takoradi, and Tamale. It also had teleprinter circuits to newspaper subscribers to its services and to Radio Ghana. Additionally, it maintained news bureaus in London and New York. The agency's operations were described in 1970 as professional and highly effective. At the end of the 1960s the corporation was receiving about NC500,000 annually in government subsidies to help support its operation. Several foreign news agencies maintained bureaus in Accra in 1970, including the Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Ceskoslovenska Tiskova Kancelar, and Reuters. The Deutsche Presse-Agentur and Telegrafnoye Agentstvo Sovietskovo Soyuza (TASS) also were represented. Various other foreign newspapers and news agencies obtained special coverage through local correspondents. Until the military coup in 1966 the government censored outgoing press messages, and a number of foreign correspondents were banned. Censorship was lifted, and the ban was revoked by the National Liberation Council at the beginning of September 1966. Radio and Television The country's first broadcasting services were established by the British colonial government before World War II. Expansion into a national system began in the 1950s, and external services were added in 1961. The system in 1970 was operated by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, an autonomous statutory body. During the presidency of Nkrumah the corporation was autonomous in name only; policy was set by the president, and all senior staff appointments were made by his information minister. A reorganization of the governing board, giving it greater independence, took place in 1968. This step was aimed principally at eliminating politics and partisanship from the broadcasting field. As of 1970 broadcasts, including domestic and international programs, were made over sixteen frequencies, all in the shortwave range (see table 6). Transmitters were located at Accra, Tema, and Ejura (in northern Ashanti Region). A frequency modulation rediffusion service composed of about forty relay stations was also in operation, with some 50,000 subscribers in the urban areas. An additional ten to twenty stations were to be constructed in 1971 and 1972, and relay services were to be extended to rural areas. [See Table 6.: Radio Stations in Ghana, 1970] As of late 1970 two parallel domestic national service programs were being broadcast-one in English and the other in various Ghanaian languages, principally Twi-Fante, Ewe, Ga, and Nzema to the southern part of the country and Dagbane to the north; broadcasts in Hausa also formed a part of regular daily programs (see ch. 4, Ethnic Groups and Languages). Each program totaled about 100 hours a week. In addition, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation had the School Broadcasting Section, which transmitted special programs to primary, middle, and secondary schools and the teacher-training colleges during the school term. Another parallel domestic program, a commercial service, which began in early 1967, broadcast close to 100 hours a week. Advertising, which was introduced with the commercial service in 1967, was also a standard part of the national service as well in 1971. News was broadcast six times daily and seven times on Sunday in English and six times a day throughout the week in Ghanaian languages. At the beginning of 1971 broadcasts in the external services were directed to all parts of Africa, Europe, and North America. Transmission was for about 110 hours a week. About 50 percent of this was in English, including ten daily news broadcasts in English. News was also broadcast in French four times a day, twice in Swahili, and once each in Arabic, Hausa, and Portuguese. The number of radio receivers increased almost sevenfold from an estimated 109,000 in 1960 to 703,000 in 1971. The 1971 estimate represented 1 set for about every 12 persons in the population, a much greater proportion than in most other West African countries. The demand for receivers was reported growing and was being met by the domestic assembly of transistor sets utilizing imported parts. At the beginning of 1970 such sets were selling for about NC31 each. Radio listeners in 1970 were estimated at some 4 million persons. Television was introduced in 1965, and in 1970 four stations were in operation serving the Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi, and Tamale areas. A relay station also carried the programs from Tamale to Ho. Telecasts were generally limited to the evening hours, except for a school program that was given in the morning. Many of the regular programs consisted of rebroadcasts of foreign material. The television section of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation announced in 1970 that it intended to introduce more locally produced programs, which it felt would suit the viewing public better. Advertising has been a part of programming since early 1967. The number of television receivers increased greatly during the late 1960s but totaled only an estimated 16,000 sets at the beginning of 1971. There were between 80,000 and 100,000 viewers in 1971. Many of the sets were owned by government officials, businessmen, and also resident foreigners. Receivers were assembled locally from imported parts. Films In 1971 there were more than 100 motion picture theaters throughout the country with a total seating capacity of some 80,000 persons. About 50 mobile cinema units were operated by the Ghana Information Service of the Ministry of Information and by the British Council. Most of the fixed theaters had 35-mm projectors; the remainder used 16-mm projectors. Annual attendance in the late 1960s was estimated at about 12 million. A state-owned and subsidized enterprise, the Ghana Film Industry Corporation, produced documentaries, short films on various subjects, and a considerable number of newsreels. Generally, the documentaries were sent to Ghanaian embassies overseas for informational use. Other film production was primarily for domestic consumption. Full-length films shown in local theaters were imported. A majority of them came from the United States; the United Kingdom was the other important source. The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation announced in late 1970 that it would produce a series of documentary films in Accra in conjunction with the Friederich-Ebert Foundation of West Germany. The films, on African life and situations, were intended for use in the training of young people in the developing countries. The project was to run for three years. Books and Publishers Publishing houses of major importance in 1970 included the private Anowuo Educational Publishers, founded by the novelist Samuel Asare Konadu in 1966. This firm published educational books, novels, and poetry in English and in the principal indigenous languages, putting out about thirty titles a year. Its main output was paperback editions intended for the domestic market. These included such items as cookbooks, fiction, and collections of traditional proverbs and folk tales. Another private publishing firm, Moxon Paperbacks Limited, was founded in 1967 by a former minister of information. Its publications have included crime novelettes, novels, poetry, handbooks, and travel and guide books. In 1970 it published the first in a series of informative handbooks on Ghana for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. State-owned publishing concerns in operation in early 1971 included the Ghana Publishing Corporation, originally established in 1965 as the State Publishing Corporation, which printed chiefly primary school textbooks. It also published various government reports, some academic titles, and some children's books. The corporation had printing divisions in Accra, Takoradi, and Tamale. Another state-owned enterprise, Ghana Universities Press, established in 1962, published principally academic works from the higher educational institutions. In fall 1969 the Central Bureau of Statistics published a directory showing over sixty printing establishments throughout the country. The type of work done was not specified. Presumably, however, some of them published pamphlets, various types of books, and other informational materials. Such firms as the Catholic Mission Press in Cape Coast and the Presbyterian Press in Accra published religious texts. In 1968, 374 books were published, a considerable increase over the 233 published in 1967. Social science titles accounted for more than two-fifths, with books on general subjects, pure and applied sciences, and the arts making up most of the remainder. A majority of titles have been in English. Of the 233 titles in 1967, 200 were in English, 28 were in indigenous languages, and 5 were in two or more languages. A considerable number of books and pamphlets are imported, including paperbacks, textbooks, encyclopaedias, and technical books. Imports in 1967 were valued at almost NC2.9 million. Libraries The public library system functions under the direction of the Ghana Library Board, a statutory corporation established in 1950. In the latter 1960s the system included a large central library and three children's libraries in Accra and regional libraries at Bolgatanga, Ho, Kumasi, Sekondi, and Tamale. Over a dozen branch libraries were located in other larger towns, and there were a number of library centers in smaller towns that were run by volunteers. A mobile library service based on the regional libraries furnished book boxes to schools, community centers, local organizations, and individuals. The board also provided a library service to the country's prisons. Public libraries in 1966 had over 677,000 volumes, more than double the 305,000 volumes recorded in 1960. During the mid-1960s the number of new acquisitions totaled about 30,000 to 40,000 annually. Registered borrowers in 1966 numbered over 103,000, and more than 720,000 books were issued that year for home reading. Financing of the system was principally from government funds. Local authorities in whose areas libraries were located also furnished some assistance through small grants-in-aid. Some twenty separate special libraries were in existence in 1970. These included the generally extensive collections at the various research institutes attached to CSIR; the libraries of some ministries, such as agriculture; the Scientific Library of the Geological Survey; and the Library of the Institute of Public Administration. Use of these libraries was generally restricted to the scientific community, staff members, and certain students. Other special libraries, all in Accra, were the George Padmore Research Library on African Affairs (under the Ghana Library Board), open to scholars, students, and interested persons; the libraries of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Center and the United Nations Information Center, both open to the public; and the UNESCO Regional Center for Education in Africa Library, which provided services to teachers throughout Africa. The British Council operated libraries in Accra, Cape Coast, and Kumasi that were open to the public, and the United States Information Service maintained one in Accra, also open to the general public. Few of the country's elementary schools were reported to have a library in 1970. A survey conducted by the Ghana Library Board in 1968 showed secondary schools and teacher-training colleges to have libraries of varying size. In some cases, volumes numbered several thousand, but in many schools the number was less than 1,500. Library facilities were also found to be inadequate in many; the libraries were generally operated by nonprofessional staff; and books could not be taken home. The Balme Library of the University of Ghana has an excellent collection, which totaled 240,000 volumes in 1970. The library can accommodate 400 readers at one time. Use of the library is generally limited to staff, students, and graduates, although other persons may be admitted by the librarian. Borrowing is permitted, but loans are made usually only to staff, students, and graduates-in-residence who live in Legon or Achimota. The University of Science and Technology at Kumasi at the end of the 1960s had about 60,000 volumes in its main library. Most of these were available for loan to the staff and student body. Foreign Information Activities At the start of 1971 foreign information was freely available to the general public. British magazines and newspapers were sold at newsstands, as were the European editions of such United States publications as Time, Life and Newsweek. Foreign information was also readily accessible at the United States Information Service library in Accra and at the libraries of the British Council in Accra, Cape Coast, and Kumasi. Periodicals and informational pamphlets and materials were distributed by or available at different embassies. Local newspapers also regularly carried foreign news considered of interest. Both the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Voice of America (VOA) carried on extensive programs in English aimed at Africa that could be easily received in Ghana. BBC broadcasts approximated 19 hours a day, and those of VOA were about 12 hours. France, Portugal, Sweden, and West Germany also had regular broadcasts in English to West Africa, and between 1/2 hour and 2 hours of English-language programs were daily beamed to Africa by the Communist nations. In late 1970 Communist China reportedly was broadcasting at least 2 hours a day in English to the African continent. Reception of stations in the Ivory Coast and Nigeria was reported good. Posts and Telecommunications Communication services were provided by the government through the Posts and Telegraph Administration in the Ministry of Transport and Communications. In early 1970 there were about 54,800 telephone connections operated through 412 manual and 13 automatic exchanges in different parts of the country. The 13 automatic exchanges were hooked up by trunklines, which allowed automatic dialing between the more important towns. Public telephones were largely nonexistent, although some service was available at post offices. A five-year program covering the 1971-75 period that would add about 27,000 new connections in the Accra-Tema area has been proposed. Long-distance facilities in 1970 were furnished partly by microwave and very high frequency (VHF) radio and partly by open wire. The quality of service was not always satisfactory. A survey of existing equipment in the late 1960s indicated rehabilitation of this system to be desirable. International services were available in 1970 to all parts of the world via high-frequency radio; service to places outside Africa was handled through London. Postal services have been gradually expanded, and in 1969 there were 187 post offices and 673 postal agencies in operation throughout the country. More than 184.5 million postal items were handled in 1969. In early 1970 the Accra central post office was handling an average of 314,000 letters and parcels a day, which constituted more than half of the national daily total. Mail was moved by train, bus, and mail vans. Letters for the Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Northern, and Upper regions were sent by air daily to Kumasi, where they were forwarded by mail trucks and vans.