Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
UNDERSTAND GHANA
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Ghana Today
Ghana is regarded by international analysts as West Africa's golden child: one of the con-
tinent's most stable democracies and fastest-growing economies.
Since the country discovered oil off the coast in 2007, the economy has gone into over-
drive. Signs of this newfound prosperity abound, especially around Takoradi, the epicentre
of the oil industry, and Accra: cranes work around the clock on new real estate develop-
ments, traffic congestion is horrendous, smart phones are everywhere - it definitely feels
more like South Africa than Guinea or the DRC.
This is way too simplistic a portrait of Ghana, however. If you're a middle-class young
professional living in the leafy 'burbs of Accra, life is good. Chances are you have running
water , power, street lights and a fair wage.
But in Accra's poorest suburbs or the rural parts of northern Ghana, development is a
work in progress. People defecate in the open for lack of sanitation; school-aged children
sell water sachets in the street and women still spend many hours fetching water at the vil-
lage pump.
The 2012 presidential elections made much of the debate on universal education and
sharing the profits of wealth. John Dramani Mahama (who succeeded John Atta Mills as
leader of the NDC after he died in July 2012) won, although his victory was being chal-
lenged at the time of writing by opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo on the grounds of
alleged rigging.
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History
Present-day Ghana has been inhabited since 4000 BC, filled by successive waves of mi-
grants from the north and east. By the 13th century several kingdoms had developed, grow-
ing rich from the country's massive gold deposits and gradually expanding south along the
Volta River to the coast.
