Ghana Essay

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Official Name: Ghana Capital: Accra Independence: The Gold Coast achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1957, becoming the first sub-Saharan African nation to do so, and the name Ghana was chosen for the new nation to reflect the ancient Empire of Ghana, which once extended throughout much of west Africa. Ghana is a member of the South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Economic Community of West African States, the African Union, and an associate member of La Francophonie. Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa in the world and is home to Lake Volta, the largest artificial lake in the world by surface area. Location: located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. The word Ghana means "Warrior King"[7] and is derived from the ancient Ghana Empire. Land Area: 88,811 sq mi (230,020 sq km); total area: 92,456 sq mi (239,460 sq km) Physical Description: Ghana, which lies in the center 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 Population: 23,837,261 people Language: Different sources give different figures for the number of languages of Ghana. This is because of different classifications of varieties as either languages or dialects. Ethnologue lists a total of 79 languages. Ethnicitity: There are over a hundred different ethnic groups in Ghana, each with its own language and culture. The largest group are the Ashanti. the Fante and the Asante groups are part of the Akan. Other large groups are the Ewe, the Ga-Adangme, the Dagomba, the Dagbani, and the Gonja.

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