Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0143/01434.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 26KB | 445 lines

$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
1