Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0142/01422.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 37KB | 594 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01422}
$Pretitle{353}
$Title{Ghana
Chapter 3A.   Historical Setting}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{ashanti
british
coast
trade
century
gold
states
territories
area
coastal}
$Date{1970}
$Log{Figure 7.*0142201.scf
}
Country:     Ghana
Book:        Area Handbook for Ghana
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1970

Chapter 3A.   Historical Setting

     As early as the end of the sixteenth century most of the ethnic groups
constituting the Ghanaian population in 1970 had settled in their present
locations (see ch. 4, Ethnic Groups and Languages). The centuries preceding
full British control of the area in the late nineteenth century were marked,
however, by the formation, expansion, and contraction of a number of African
states, which often entailed the movement of groups of people from outside the
territory or from one place to another within it.

     In part, the processes of state formation and development were directly
or indirectly influenced by attempts to participate in, or to control, trade
with the Europeans who began to come to the coast as early as the fifteenth
century. To a considerable extent, however, the growth or decline of these
states and the relations among them were responses to patterns of trade,
particularly between north and south, that preceded European incursion and to
internal dynamics peculiar to the states themselves.

     The development of a national consciousness gathered momentum in the
twentieth century coinciding in large part with the drive toward independence.
Similar stirrings occurred in other black African colonies, although the Gold
Coast, as the country was known until independence in 1957, generally led the
way. In the post-World War II atmosphere of disintegrating colonial empires,
the movement soon developed into a force that could not be denied. Although it
had been conceived originally by a few militant leaders, the concept of
independence readily captured the popular imagination and gained strong
support from virtually every segment of the population. As an emotional
outlet, it served to develop pride in a purely African heritage that is now an
important element in the attitude and outlook of the nation.

     The adaptation of groups of varied ethnic origin to different physical
environments-generally forest or coastal in the south and savanna in the
north-and the differential impact of Islam moving from the north and European
influence penetrating from the coast in the south led to significant
differences between the people of northern and southern Ghana that have
persisted in the years since independence (see ch. 2, Physical Environment
and Population; ch. 4, Ethnic Groups and Languages). The peoples of the south
have generally been more ready than those of the north to adapt to or adopt
aspects of Western culture, ranging from Christianity and education to
participation in more modern forms of economic organization and enterprise
(see ch. 7, Education, Information, and the Arts and Sciences; ch. 11,
Character and Structure of the Economy).

     The history of the first nine years of the postindependence era was
dominated by one man, Kwame Nkrumah. As leader of the Convention Peoples Party
(CCP), after 1959 effectively the country's only political party, and as the
government's chief executive, he came to hold most of the reins of power. His
energies were divided between efforts to lead the movement for the
independence and unification of the rest of Africa and attempts to further
Ghana's own development. Domestically, he sought first to create a highly
centralized political structure, which first altered and then replaced the
constitutional concept and focused power in his hands. Particularly after the
adaptation of a republican constitution and the end of dominion status in
1960, he tried to identify all elements of the national life with his own
personality. All opposition, either from other parties or from within the
ruling party, was interpreted and treated as treasonous behavior.

     Nkrumah directed considerable criticism against the Western powers, which
he saw as attempting to continue their economic control and political
domination over the former colonial countries. He adopted a strong Socialist
line, copying programs wholesale from the Communist states. He espoused a
doctrine of nonalignment between the West and Communist power blocs, but he
sought closer ties to the Communist countries on many issues. He remained,
however, an ardent pan-Africanist, using the language of Marxism only when it
was convenient to his purposes. In his eagerness to industrialize the country
he continued to rely upon both groups of developed countries for assistance
and loans.

     In the nine years between 1957 and 1966 Nkrumah's policies depleted the
strong financial reserves the country had at independence and plunged Ghana
into economic chaos (see ch. 10, Foreign Political and Economic Relations;
ch. 11, Character and Structure of the Economy). His expenditures resulted
from his efforts to industrialize without proper planning and to build up
Ghana's and Nkrumah's image no matter what the costs. Falling prices for the
country's prime product, cocoa, and widespread corruption further weakened
both the economy and the government's influence over the people, upon whom
the economic deterioration weighed heavily.

     Despite domination of the channels of public information and education by
his ideological supporters, by the mid-1960s Nkrumah had lost the popular
support that had sustained him in his power struggles for more than a decade.
In February 1966 army and police leaders, dismayed by his handling of the
government, deposed him while he was on a trip to Hanoi. The CPP was outlawed.
The coup leaders formed the National Liberation Council and pledged to restore
civil liberties, economic sanity, and democratic government as rapidly as
possible (see ch. 8, The Governmental System; ch. 9, Political Dynamics and
Values).

The Precolonial Period

     Beginning in the late 1950s and accelerating in the 1960s there has been
a sustained effort by many Ghanaian as well as European and American scholars
to develop a variety of sources-oral history, archaeology, and records in
European and African languages and Arabic-in order to construct as detailed a
picture as possible of the history of the peoples of Ghana from early times
through the nineteenth century. In late 1970, however, a generally acceptable
synthesis, except for broad outlines, had not yet been achieved.

     Information that indicates the location and relations of some of the
peoples ancestral to the present inhabitants goes back to the thirteenth
century. Oral history and other sources suggest, however, that some of
those ancestors entered the area between the Volta River and Comoe River
(in western Ivory Coast) at least as early as the tenth century and that
migration from the north and east continued for some centuries thereafter.
Recent archaeological work in central Ghana (north of the forest zone)
suggests that this area was inhabited as much as 3,000 to 4,000 years ago,
but a link between these earlier inhabitants and known ancestors of the
present population has yet to be established.

     In part the stimulus for these migrations lay in the repercussions of the
formation and disintegration of a series of great states in the western Sudan
(in the region drained by the upper and middle Niger River) and by others in
what is now northern Nigeria. The area that now constitutes Ghana was not
integrally a part of any of these states. Some of the kingdoms later developed
in northern Ghana, however, were ruled by immigrants (speakers of Mande
languages) ethnically related to the ruling peoples of the empire of Mali, the
successor to the earlier states in the Western Sudan, and some of the peoples
in the southern half of Ghana engaged in regular trade with the states of the
Sudan.

     By the thirteenth century Jenne, a