3. History Ghana is named after the medieval Ghana Empire of West Africa. It was controlled by Sundiata in 1240 AD, and absorbed into the larger Mali. Mali Empire reached success under Mansa Musa around 1307. Around 1235, a Muslim leader named Sundiata united warring tribes. He then brought neighboring states under his rule to create the Mali empire.Its capital city was called Kumbi-Saleh. Geographically, the old Ghana was approximately 500 miles (800 km) north of the present Ghana, and occupied the area between the Sénégal and Niger rivers. Up until March 1957, Ghana was known to much of the world as the Gold Coast. The Portuguese, who came to Ghana in the 15th Century, found so much gold between the rivers Ankobra and the Volta that they named the place Mina, meaning Mine. The Gold Coast was later adopted by English colonists. The French, impressed with the trinkets worn by the coastal people, named the area to the west "Cote d'Ivoire," or Ivory Coast.
4. People The population in Ghana is 23,382,848. 0-14 years: 37.8% (male 4,470,382/female 4,360,359). Ghana has 18,530 primary schools, 8,850 junior secondary schools, 900 senior secondary schools, 28 training colleges, 20 technical institutions, 4 diploma-awarding institutions, 6 public universities and over 10 private universities. Most Ghanaians have relatively easy access to primary and secondary education. These numbers can be contrasted with the single university and handful of secondary and primary schools that existed at the time of independence in 1957. Ghana's spending on education has varied between 28 and 40 percent of its annual budget in the past decade. All teaching is done in English, Ghana's official language.
5. Charity Projects Ghana Outlook has been involved in a number of projects since 1998 aimed at helping people in the poorer communities of Ghana to improve conditions and opportunities, these projects include: Helping to build schools and libraries, Collecting computers, books and all things educational and Arranging for young people from the UK to travel to Ghana and assist with projects.
6. Wildlife The largest, most developed park in Ghana is Mole, Mole began in 1957. The size of this park is 4,912 sq. km. 734 species of flowering plants have been recorded in the park. 90 mammalian species including elephant, buffalo, roan, kob, hartebeest, water buck, reed buck and other antelopes. Lions, hyenas. leopards and monkeys, crocodiles and over 300 kinds of birds, half of them winter migrants from Europe have been recorded in this vast park. There are 33 camps and 500 km of viewing road. The symbol of the park is the Roan Antelope.
7. Terrain Ghana, which lies in the centre of the West African coast, shares 2,093 km of land borders with the three French-speaking nations of Burkina Faso (548 km) to the north, Côte d'Ivoire (668 km) to the west, and Togo (877 km) to the east. To the south are the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. With a total area of 238,533 square kilometres, Ghana is about the size of the United Kingdom, or slightly smaller than Oregon. Its southernmost coast at is 4° 30' north of the equator. T he Greenwich Meridian, which passes through London, also traverses the eastern part of Ghana at Tema.
8. Landmarks Elmina Castle is a tourist attraction and World Heritage Monument in Cape Coast. Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, Independence Square. Ghana achieved independence from England in 1957 Mole park in Ghana
9. Famous People 16 October 2007, MokumTV of Amsterdam announced that the brand new Atongo Zimba CD ‘Barefoot in the Sand’ has been nominated for the title African CD of the year. Kwame Nkrumah (1909–72), the first president of the republic Richie is best known as one of Ghana's best and most successful beat makers.
10. Interesting facts Location : Westafrica Neighboring countries : Côte d’Ivoire (west), Burkina Faso (north) and Togo (east) Capital and largest city : Accra Population : 21 million Population density : 93/km² Official language : English Native languages : 79 in total, including Akan, Moshi-Dagomba, Ewe, Hausa and Ga Religions : Christian 63%, Indigenous beliefs 21% and Muslim 16% Political structure : Constitutional democracy Literacy rate : Total population=74.8%, Male=82.7%, Female=67.1% GDP total : $55.2 billion GDP per capita : $2,643. Currency : Cedi (GHC) Main exports : Gold, timber and cocoa
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