A Brief History of Ghana: The Ghana Political Tradition

By Abena Kwatemaa Offeh-Gyimah

Over the next few months, I will examine the Ghana political tradition and the men who made it. I will mainly focus on Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia and John Jerry Rawlings; this is because I believe their policies, ideas and workings have played a significant role in shaping modern Ghana. In my article in May, I will first give a brief history of Dr. Nkrumah. I will analyze his ideas, and their current effect on modern Ghana and top it up with the brief appearance of Dr. Busia on Ghana political scene. For the month of June, I will examine the policies of John Jerry Rawlings, who has also played a significant part in Ghana’s history. Lastly, in July, I will examine Ghana’s current state under President John Atta Mills.

As a beginning, I present a brief history of Ghana:

Modern Ghana in West Africa, takes it name from the ancient kingdom of Ghana, which was approximately 500 miles north of present-day Accra. Ancient Ghana controlled the gold trade mining areas to the south and the Saharan trade routes to the north. It was one of the greatest Sudanic states, which dominate African history. It flourished until the eleventh century AD.

The coming of the Europeans brought several changes to trading patterns and the economic focus shifted from the kingdom of Ghana to the West African coastline. The Portuguese, who came first, were seeking the source of African gold. It lay too far inland for them but on the Gold Coast they found a region where gold could be obtained. Their fort, Elmina, (the mine), was the first in a series of forts to be built along the coastline.

However, overtime, slaves began to replace gold. Despite the devastations of slave trade, which left many regions depopulated, the shape of modern Ghana was taking place. At the end of the 17th century, there were a small number of small states on the Gold Coast. By the 1750’s, the states had emerged and were the Asante Empire and the Fantes. In the 19th century, the Asantes were seeking mastery of the coast. The British could not tolerate the expansion of the Asantes as they had already won control of the coast from the other European countries. After a series of military campaign, the British were finally able to force the Asantes to give up sovereignty over their southern possessions. Over time, they were able to take over and, the vast Asante Empire shrunk to the Asante and Brong-Ahafo regions of Ghana today.

At the same time, the Fantes had been uniting and organizing and found themselves into a confederation in 1868, with a civil service and a constitution. The British arrested their leaders for treason, however, the leaders were freed after a month. In 1874, the British established the Crown Colony in legalizing a colonial policy.

However, in 1948, there were riots which marked the people’s agitation for independence; this was instrumental in demonstrating that the colonialism had to come to an end. The man who was the catalyst for that struggle was Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. He became a prominent leader and broke away from The United Gold Coast Convention which was a political party whose aim was to bring about Ghanaian independence from British rule after the Second World War, to form the Convention People’s Party, with the slogan, Self-Government Now! On March 6, 1957, Ghana achieved independence, the first British colony in Africa to do so. On July 1, 1960 it became a Republic with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as its first president.

The astounding leadership of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah has contributed greatly to what Ghana is today. Ghana is not only known as the first country south of the Sahara to achieve independence, but also as one of the most democratic countries on the continent of Africa. Ghana is one of the few politically stable countries in Africa and sets as a model of development for other African countries.