Playing football on Labadi beach, south coast

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.

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Photo for Oxfam GB by Penny Tweedie