Oxfam's Cool Planet - On the Line - print-out version of Ghana Virtual Journey

This virtual journey has been transferred to the Cool Planet website from On the Line. Much of the information here relates to the time when the millennium dawned.

The text below has been taken from the virtual journey through Ghana and is in a form that can be printed out. Please note that this file does not contain photographs. Individual, printable pages with photos are contained in the main virtual journey.

Take a journey through Ghana, and experience the culture, the cuisine, and the colours of a country steeped in ancient traditions. Take a peek into a typical Ghanaian village, travel back in time and discover the history of chocolate, and tune into Ghana's music scene. Before you start, check out the guide book.

In Ghana football is the sport. From an early age, Ghanaians really do eat, drink, and sleep football. To play for the Blackstars, Ghana's national team, is every schoolboy's dream. Many Blackstars players, play their professional football in Europe, in countries such as Italy, Holland and Germany. Alex Nyarko plays in midfield for a French team called RC Lens. While Marcel Desailly who played in the French team that won the World Cup in 1998, was born in Ghana and now plays for Chelsea, a team based in London, capital of the United Kingdom. Britain’s first black professional footballer, Arthur Wharton, was Ghanaian. He came to the UK in 1882 and died in the 1930s.

One of Ghana's oldest existing sports is not so well known outside Africa. The game of oware is played throughout Ghana as well as in other African countries including Burkina Faso, Togo, Sudan, and Uganda. Oware is a game for two people, similar to backgammon but played with 24 stones and a very different board. The board is made from a thick, oblong piece of wood which has twelve, hollowed-out holes.

In August 1997, history was made when the Oware World Championships took place at the Royal Festival Hall in London, and received massive media attention.

Ashanti people are famous for their hand-woven ceremonial Kente cloth Other traditional crafts include wood carving, brass figures gold jewellery, basket weaving, and drum-making. Villagers tend to specialise in one particular craft, and skills are passed down through the generations. Many of the local markets have disappeared, as has happened all over the world, so traditional skills are being adapted to create items for tourist and export markets.

Kente cloth is unique to Ghana and is widely used for ceremonial costumes, weddings, naming ceremonies, and other celebrations. Kente is woven in long narrow strips, about 14 cm wide and 11 metres long. The cloth is very colourful; the weavers use a variety of colours together and the designs can be triangular, hexagonal, or geometrical shapes.

The centre of Kente weaving is the village of Bonwire, near Kumasi. The story has it that over a hundred years ago, two brothers went into the bush and found a spider weaving its web. When they came back to the village they got the idea of making some kind of cloth based on the design of the spider’s web.

Weaving, on traditional narrow looms, is usually done by men, but women are involved in sewing the strips of cloth together and marketing the finished product. Kente can be either single or double weave, and is made from cotton, silk, rayon, and 'shiny’ [lurex] thread. The double weave is stronger, thicker, and more expensive, but all Kente weavers are able to use both techniques.

Abukarie Mohammed pounds fresh goat skins in a mortar to soften them. They are soaked in ash and water overnight, then soaked in a mixture of water and tree bark or maize stalks, to stain them various colours. After this, they are laid out in the sun to dry.

It takes about 15 minutes to measure and make the metal rings for the drums. There are three on each djembe, two at the top rim and one on the bottom.

The skins are fumigated before fitting and then soaked again to make them more pliable and to ensure a tight fit.

Twisted lengths of hide are wrapped around the metal rings to cover them, and then comes the complicated threading and tying of the tensioning rings. The tensioning of a djembe is altered by loosening or tightening the leather cords.

The proof of any drum is in the playing. Drum-making in Ghana is a skill which is passed down from generation to generation.

Ghana can be described as a land of festivals, music, and traditional dances. There is hardly any community, clan, or tribe which lacks an occasion to celebrate annually. There are many traditional musical styles around the country. In the South, music is usually drum-based, and in the far North, fiddles and other string instruments are more common.

The most popular, and well-known, music to come out of Ghana is 'highlife’, a mix of different homegrown styles which fuses traditional percussion rhythms with various European, American, and even Caribbean influences. Highlife developed in the 1920s and reached a peak of popularity between 1950 - 1970. You can still get classic highlife music from the 1950s, now available on CD. E T Mensah, is a name to look out for. Another all-time classic, first released in 1978, is Eric Agyeman’s Highlife Safari. The title track, Matatu Mirika, has a reputation for setting Ghanaian parties alight.

"My name is Anusibuno and I am seven years old. I live in a village called Zuo, in northern Ghana. I live with my mother and father and four sisters in rooms which are built within a circular wall."

"The walls and roofs of our rooms are made of mud and wood, and the floors are made of beaten gravel. The whole enclosed area is called a compound. Our part of the compound has five rooms: my father’s room, a kitchen area, the grinding-stone room, and two others which we use for storage, sleeping, and living rooms."

"I usually wake up around 5.30am. As soon as I’m awake, I start on the things I do every morning: I sweep our part of the compound, fetch water from the borehole with my sisters, then I might help my mother to prepare breakfast."

"We often have pumpuka for breakfast, it’s a sort of porridge made of roughly-ground millet. I help to serve the pumpuka into bowls and then my sisters, mother, and I sit down outside to eat it."

"Then I go to wash in the water we have collected from the pump. I dry myself and rub shea butter on my skin to protect it from the sun and wind."

"Once I’ve washed, I put on my dress and walk to school. I haven’t got a school uniform: not many of the children at my school have."

"I started school two years ago and now I’m in Class P2. My sisters, Alenye and Awensina, are here too. There are ten children in my class, but we also have to share the classroom with the younger children."

"Mary-Jo is our teacher, she’s very nice. I like doing maths best of all, and I enjoy the singing and dancing we learn at school."

"I play with my sisters and other relatives and friends who live in the compound. We like playing hopscotch. We also make toys from clay and put them in the sun to dry."

Anusibuno and her family also appear in Wake Up, World! - a book for young children to be published in September by Frances Lincoln, in association with Oxfam GB.

food
Thick soups are the mainstay of Ghanaian cuisine and are usually eaten with potatoes or rice. Another staple meal is Fufu, which consists of cassava, yam, or plantain that has been cooked, pureed, and mashed into a ball. Fufu is a ubiquitous and much-loved staple throughout most of West Africa. It can be topped with a fiery sauce or served as the bland accompaniment to a main dish. Fufu is traditionally made with cassava, but it can be prepared with everything from rice or yams, to instant mashed potatoes.

On street stalls you can find plenty of foods to stave off your hunger pangs. A popular dessert is fried plantains seasoned with chilli pepper and ginger. This is usually washed down with a refreshing non-alcoholic drink made of corn called askenkee.

One of the more common foods served on ceremonial occasions in Ghana is oto. It is used as an initiation meal prior to the events of the day. Oto is always accompanied by hard-boiled eggs. For official ceremonial purposes, oto is prepared without onions or tomatoes.

Ghana's most famous 'food', of course, is cocoa. It is one of the country's major exports and is used to make chocolate.

Place the yams in cold, unsalted water. Boil the water with the yams, and cook for approximately 25 minutes, or until the yams are soft. Remove the yams, cool, and peel, then mash with the other ingredients. Place in a food processor to remove any lumps. DO NOT PUREE. Put the fufu mixture in a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon or wire whisk until completely smooth. The fufu should have a sticky, slightly resilient consistency. All that remains is to shape the fufu into balls and serve warm.

Boil yams or potatoes, then mash smoothly with a fork; or prepare the instant mashed potatoes using directions on package, but using water instead of milk. Prepare gravy in a saucepan by frying onions and seasoning in palm oil. Add tomatoes if desired. Remove from heat. Mash the yolks from two of the hard-boiled eggs, and stir into gravy. Stir gravy into mashed yams and mix well until the colour is even. Empty the oto into a bowl and decorate with remaining whole eggs.

Ghana is famed for the high quality cocoa it produces; cocoa is the country’s second largest export. The cocoa beans are used to make chocolate, either in Ghana, or in other countries such as the UK. One of the UK’s leading chocolate manufacturers, Cadbury’s, uses over 50,000 tonnes of cocoa beans every year to make chocolate. .

In Africa, cocoa is grown almost entirely on small-holdings. To flourish, cocoa trees need to be shaded, especially in the early stages of growth. Young cocoa trees are grown from seeds planted in special nurseries before being transferred to the prepared growing areas.

When the trees are three to four years old, they start to bear fruit. These large pods are green when young, but change to a golden-yellow when ripe. Once picked, the pods are broken open and the beans, formed on a stem and covered in sweet, creamy oil, are scooped out. The seeds are left to ferment and then to dry in the sun. During this process, the original pale creamy colour turns dark brown. It is then ready to manufacture into cocoa butter or chocolate.

Nothing goes to waste from the cocoa plant. The cocoa husk is used for fertiliser, and also as the ingredient of a specialist soap. Cocoa shell is used for garden mulch to control weeds and repel slugs.

When Europeans first tried chocolatl, they found it loathsome and unpleasant. But the name and taste caught on. In the UK today, we spend Ł3 billion on chocolate every year.

The first known use of the cocoa bean to make a chocolate drink dates back to the Mayan empire which at that time, spread across southern Mexico and Guatemala. It was Christopher Columbus who first brought word of cocoa and chocolate to Europe in the late fifteenth century. However, it was not until Don Cortes brought the actual cocoa beans back to Spain in 1528 that their importance was fully appreciated. Cortes is said to have tasted his first drinking chocolate in a golden goblet in the palace of the Aztec Emperor, Montezuma. A Spanish version of chocolate with added cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar soon became the fashionable drink of the Spanish court. As cocoa beans were in short supply, the secret of chocolate was closely guarded for almost a century.

Now, however, chocolate manufacture is big business around the world. But many of the farmers who grow the cocoa beans receive only a tiny proportion of the profits from chocolate sales. The introduction in recent years of Fair Trade chocolate has helped to redress the balance.

Divine chocolate is one the latest products to be awarded the Fair Trade Mark and it uses cocoa beans from Ghana. Divine is the first Fair Trade-Marked chocolate bar to be launched directly into supermarkets and is now available in 150g bars from Tesco, Co-op, and Iceland stores.

Fair Trade supports poor people who face disadvantages but are working to overcome them through their own efforts. Fair Trade is about giving poor people power, by paying producers a fair price for their work and by strengthening their hand in trading relationships. Fair Trade means that many of the people who rely on selling crafts and textiles for a living; or who produce food items such as tea, coffee cocoa, or honey, now have the chance to work their way out of poverty.

Organisations such as Oxfam GB have been trading fairly for years. Consumers have come to trust these organisations because they were set up to alleviate poverty and give producers in developing countries a fair deal. In order to encourage mainstream traders to adopt Fair Trade principles, the

was established by an organisation called the Fairtrade Foundation. The Fair Trade Mark is an independent consumer guarantee that Third World producers get a better deal. Products carrying the Fair Trade Mark are widely available in supermarkets, wholefood shops, Oxfam shops and other quality outlets in the UK.

"My dream for the new milllenium is that there is world peace and world leaders would rather fight against racial discrimination, corruption, child labour, gender inequality and rule their respective countries with democracy." Alex Ofori, Accra

"My dream for the new millenium is that I want to see a world free of war, racism, diseases, theft, rape and other social vices. Also, I feel all children of school going age should have equal access to education at all levels." Masud Ashitey, from Accra

"My dreams for the new millennium are: I hope all the children in the world will be very intelligent and obedient.I have a lot of dreams but I have to go. BYE for now." Serwaa, from Accra

"When I’m grown up I want to be a fisherman and to make enough money to buy my own boat."
"I’d like to be a teacher, I don’t want to be a fisherman. Teachers are important people."
Peter, aged 13 and Alex, aged 16, Ghana

"I want to be a nurse or a doctor so I can help to make sick people better. I’ll have to study science and maths and then go to university to train. In the year 2000, I would like my country to build more hospitals so that when someone falls ill they can always get to a hospital." Abida, aged 12, Ghana

"I live in a good house. Every day I read and write and I'd like to be a nurse or doctor in the future. My brother is a teacher and my sister is training to be a nurse. When I grow up I want to travel to England or America. I've never been anywhere except Ghana." Sylvie, aged 8, Ghana

"When I grow up I want to be a bank manager, because I'd get a lot of money. If I had the opportunity I'd like to get back to school to continue my education: that would help me get a good job and earn some money." Peter, aged 10, a street child from Ghana

"I hope to become either an architect, because I like fashionable houses and I also like drawing, or else an economist, in order to help develop my country’s economy for the future." Selon, a Ghanaian at The British School of Lomé, Togo

"I want to be a person of influence – I want to be someone who can change a lot of ideas in the world, like I really do want to combat racism because that’s one thing that is really, really eating me up... I want to start somewhere in Europe because in Africa there’s very little racism compared to in Europe. I know wanting to combat racism is a very, very time-consuming activity and if I find out that I’m not able to live up to my goal there something else that I would like to do, and that’s to work to make the role of women in my country more important." Priscilla, a Ghanaian at The British School of Lomé, Togo

Welcome to Ghana
This guide book will tell you everything you want to know about Ghana -- well almost. Facts, figures, and intriguing information to stimulate and inspire: who invaded Ghana and why?; where is the biggest man-made lake in the world?; why is it so important to save the rain forests?

Ghana’s rich history centres on the once-great Ashanti empire, which rose to power during the late seventeenth century. By this time, the Ashanti empire had conquered the majority of the other tribal states and turned its attention to controlling trade routes to the coast. The trade in gold, ivory, and slaves made the Ashanti, and later the Europeans, very rich. The Portuguese were the first of a long line of European powers to arrive in Ghana, then called 'the Gold Coast'. The British invaded in the 1870s, although warfare with the Ashanti lasted until the 1900s.

In the 1920s and 1930s, a number of political parties arose, dedicated to achieving independence from British Colonial rule, but it wasn’t until 1951 that a general election was held. The election was won by Kwame Nkrumah who founded the Convention People’s Party. In 1957, under Nkrumah’s leadership, Ghana became the first African country to gain its independence from European colonisers. In 1966, Nkrumah was ousted by a coup, because of growing dissatisfaction with the economic and political situation. A series of military governments with intervals of civilian rule followed. Months before a scheduled democratic election in 1979, a group of young soldiers led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings took power, promising to rid Ghana of corruption. His regime introduced tough economic reforms and controlled any opposition; however, it allowed democratic elections in 1989. At present, there is a democratically-elected government, and Rawlings remains Chief of State, President, and head of the government.

In 1471, the Portuguese landed on Ghana's shores in search of gold, which they found in abundance. By the end of the seventeenth century, Britain had joined the Portuguese and other European powers in the fight for Ghana's many resources. But instead of dealing in gold, Britain decided to get into an even more lucrative business, the slave trade.

A slave trade had existed in Africa long before the Europeans or Americans arrived, but slaves were incidental captives of inter-tribal war and relatively few in number. The transatlantic slave trade operated on an unprecedented scale, was ruthlessly well-organised, and had a devastating effect on African society. It is estimated that between 12 and 20 million Africans were transported across the Atlantic between the late seventeenth century and early nineteenth century. Slaves were subjected to a five-week trip in conditions so cramped and unhygienic that it was not unusual for a boat to lose half its slaves in transit.

The slave trade out of the Gold Coast continued unabated throughout the eighteenth century, but as the century drew to a close ,the anti-slavery lobby became an increasingly powerful voice in Europe. In 1804, Denmark abolished the slave trade, followed by Britain in 1807, the USA in 1808, and Holland, France, Portugal, and Spain between 1814 and1817.

Ghana lies on the west coast of Africa. It is bordered on the north by Burkina Faso, on the west by Cote d’Ivoire, and on the east by Togo.

The country lies just above the equator and is on the Greenwich meridian which passes through the seaport of Tema, about 24 km to the east of Accra, the capital.

Lake Volta, dominates Ghana’s south-eastern territory, and is the world’s largest artificial lake. The lake was created when the Akosombo hydro-electric dam was built in 1964. Geographically, Ghana lies within the tropics. The north of the country differs greatly in climate from the south. Southern Ghana is much wetter, has high temperatures all year round, and has a very short dry season. Lush forests and all kind of crops grow throughout the year. Farmers in the North struggle to grow anything during the long dry season.

The Republic of Ghana was formerly known as the Gold Coast and lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the western coast of tropical Africa.

The Republic of Ghana was formerly known as the Gold Coast and lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the western coast of tropical Africa.
Capital	Accra
Population	18.5 million (EIU mid-1998 estimate)
Size	238,537 square km
Languages	English (official), Ga, Ewe, Fante, Hausa, Twi, Akan, Konkomba, Dagbani, Gonja
Average life expectancy	59 years
Infant deaths per 1,000 births	110
Literacy	76% male; 54% female
Currency	Cedis
No of people per doctor	25,000
Spending on health per person	US$15 per year
Percentage of population with access to safe water	65%
Major exports	Cocoa, gold, timber, tuna, bauxite, aluminium
Total external debt	US 6,202 million
Communications	20 TV sets, 229 radios, and 3 main telephone lines per 1000 people
Climate	Tropical
Time	GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
Places on the line	Tema (part of Accra), Lake Volta, Yendi, Kete Krachi, Pushuga, Kpandai, Kpandu

Sources: Economist Intelligence Unit, Ghana Country Profile 1999-2000 and 1998-99 - published by Oxfam GB, The World Guide 1999-2000, http://www.healthnet.org/

The southern region of Ghana is covered with dense rain forest, partially cleared to plant cocoa, coffee, banana, and oil palm trees. Wide savannahs extend to the North. The subsoil is rich in gold, diamonds, manganese, and bauxite. The main environmental problems are desertification in the north-west, and deforestation in the South.

The massive Kujani Game Reserve in the Digya National Park (south-west of Lake Volta) is Ghana's largest protected area and is known for its varied wildlife. On the other side of the lake is the Mole Game Reserve, a popular place with tourists and another area where animals can live and breed in a protected environment.

Ghana’s forests are under pressure, and many Ghanaians believe action is needed if the forests are to survive. Ghana’s tropical rain forest area is now just 25 per cent of its original size. Deforestation has occurred for a variety of reasons, including logging (a major drain on forest resources) and clearing the land to plant cash-crops.

The impact of deforestation is widespread, affecting the livelihoods of local people, and upsetting the fine balance of the forest’s ecosystem. The tropical forests that cover the southern part of the country are vital for the environmental balance of the whole region. The impact of deforestation in Ghana is seriously jeopardising the future of the country. If extraction continues at the present rate, the forest will be gone in the next 45 years.

President Jerry Rawlings has said that logging and forest protection should go hand in hand, and is a strong advocate of sustainable management to ensure the survival of Ghana’s forests. The government has taken a series of measures to cope with deforestation, including a ban on all exports of raw logs. In addition, Ghana has set aside 16 per cent of its total area of forest land for wildlife and plant reserves, and has restricted logging licences outside these reserves.

Ghanaians come from six main ethnic groups: the Akan (Ashanti and Fanti), the Ewe, the Ga-Adangbe, the Mole-Dagbane, the Guan, and the Gurma. There is complete freedom of religion in Ghana. Fifty per cent of the population are Christian, 32 per cent are animists, and 13 per cent are Muslim.

Southern Ghana is home to the economic centre of the country, with resources such as gold and timber, a growing industrial base, and cocoa plantations which supply the main export crop. Subsequently, much of the political power is in the South. Despite recent moves to decentralise power, which it is hoped will give more control to regional administration, the North remains the most impoverished part of the country.

Inhabitants of northern regions suffer high levels of malnutrition, high infant and maternal mortality, poor food security, drought, and environmental degradation.

Like many other developing countries, Ghana’s health services are severely under-resourced. It is estimated that only 45 per cent of the rural population has access to health services. Urban areas fair better, with all regional capitals and most districts having hospitals and clinics. Herbal medicine and psychic healing are also generally practised.

Until the 1970s, Ghana had one of the most highly developed education systems in West Africa. It declined in 1975, with the rest of the economy. Currently, 76 per cent of males and 54 per cent of females can read and write.

The introduction of school fees has led to a decline in school enrolment. Added to this, district authorities and parent-teacher associations, which now have more responsibility for education, impose their own additional charges, which some parents simply cannot afford. The government aims to reallocate more of the annual budget towards basic education and aims to get every child into some form of schooling by 2005.

Ghana has several higher education institutions, including four major universities. There are also six polytechnics and 38 teacher training colleges.

All the answers to the following questions can be found in the Ghana virtual journey and guide book pages.

1. How many people live in Ghana?

3. Fufu is a staple Ghanaian meal, which consists of cassava, yam, or plantain that has been cooked, pureed, and mashed into a ball.

4. The name given to the ceremonial cloth that Ashanti people weave is Kente clothe.

6. Two reasons for deforestation in Ghana are: logging; and clearing the land to plant cash crops.

8. Highlife is a popular and well-known type of Ghanaian music. It is a musical mix of different homegrown styles, fusing traditional percussion rhythms with various European, American, and even Caribbean influences.

Here are some teaching ideas to help your class to begin to think about life in Ghana.

Use the pictures and quotes from Anusibuno in the "daily life" section of the Ghanaian virtual journey.