March 6th, 1957, the Gold Coast gained its independence from Great

Britain.

Independence Square celebrations - Accra, Ghana

Ghana - Political History

Ghana lies at the heart of a region which has been leading sub-Saharan

African culture since the first millennium BC in metal-working, mining,

sculpture and agriculture.

Modern Ghana takes its name from the ancient kingdom of Ghana, some 800 km.

(500 miles) to the north of present day Accra, which flourished up to the

eleventh century AD. One of the great sudanic states which dominate African

history, the kingdom of Ghana controlled the gold trade between the mining

areas to the south and the Saharan trade routes to the north. Ancient Ghana

was also the focus for the export trade in Saharan copper and salt.

The coming of Europeans altered the trading patterns, and the focus of

economic power shifted to the West African coastline. The Portuguese came

first, seeking the source of the African gold. It lay too far inland for

them to reach; but on the Gold Coast they found a region where gold could be

obtained, exported along established trade paths from the interior. Their

fort at Elmina (the mine) was the first in a series of forts along the

Gold Coast designed to repel the other European seafarers who followed in

their wake, all struggling for their share of the profitable Gold Coast

trade.

In due course, however, slaves replaced gold as the most lucrative trade

along the coast, with the European slave buyers using the forts and

adjoining buildings for their own accommodation and protection, as well as

for storing the goods, mainly guns and gunpowder, which they would barter

for slaves. Some of the forts were also used for keeping newly acquired

slaves pending the arrival of the ships sent to collect them.

But while Europeans quarrelled over access to the coastal trade, and despite

the appalling depredations of the slave traders, which left whole regions

destroyed and depopulated, the shape of modern Ghana was being laid down. At

the end of the 17th

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