Get information, facts, and pictures about Ghana at Encyclopedia.com. Make research projects and school reports about Ghana easy with credible articles from our FREE.

Simple French Food 40th Anniversary Edition . 3D Page Turning Photo Album Templates more. Years before they climbed the country charts with songs like "Stay a Little Longer" and "Rum," the Brothers Osborne grew up in Deale, Maryland, a small fishing town. The Seychelles president, who is head of state and head of government, is elected by popular vote for a five-year term of office. The cabinet is presided over and.

Ghana facts, information, pictures . There are coins of . Movable religious holidays include Good Friday and Easter Monday. TIME: GMT. Situated on the southern coast of the West African bulge, Ghana has an area of 2. Bordered on the e by Togo, on the s by the Atlantic Ocean (Gulf of Guinea), on the w by C. Comparatively, the area occupied by Ghana is slightly smaller than the state of Oregon. Ghana's capital city, Accra, is located on the Gulf of Guinea coast.

The coastline consists mostly of a low sandy shore behind which stretches the coastal plain, except in the west, where the forest comes down to the sea. The forest belt, which extends northward from the western coast about 3. North of the forest is undulating savanna drained by the Black Volta and White Volta rivers, which join and flow south to the sea through a narrow gap in the hills. Ghana's highest point is Mount Afadjato at 8. Apart from the Volta, only the Pra and the Ankobra rivers permanently pierce the sand dunes, most of the other rivers terminating in brackish lagoons.

There are no natural harbors. Lake Volta, formed by the impoundment of the Volta behind Akosombo Dam, is the world's largest manmade lake (8,4. The climate is tropical but relatively mild for the latitude.

Climatic differences between various parts of the country are affected by the sun's journey north or south of the equator and the corresponding position of the intertropical convergence zone, the boundary between the moist southwesterly winds and the dry northeasterly winds. Except in the north, there are two rainy seasons, from April through June and from September to November. Squalls occur in the north during March and April, followed by occasional rain until August and September, when the rainfall reaches its peak. Average temperatures range between 2.

Rainfall ranges from 8. The harmattan, a dry desert wind, blows from the northeast from December to March, lowering the humidity and causing hot days and cool nights in the north; the effect of this wind is felt in the south during January. In most areas, temperatures are highest in March and lowest in August. Variation between day and night temperatures is relatively small, but greater in the north, especially in January, because of the harmattan.

No temperature lower than 1. Most of the forest is in the south and in a strip along the border with Togo. Except for coastal scrub and grassland, the rest of Ghana is savanna. As of 2. 00. 2, there were at least 2. Slash- and- burn agriculture and overcultivation of cleared land have resulted in widespread soil erosion and exhaustion. Over- grazing. heavy logging, overcutting of firewood, and mining have taken a toll on forests and woodland.

About one- third of Ghana's land area is threatened by desertification. Industrial pollutants include arsenic from gold mining and noxious fumes from smelters. Water pollution results from a combination of industrial sources, agricultural chemicals, and inadequate waste treatment facilities. The nation has 3. Ghana has five national parks and four other protected areas; there are six Ramsar wetland sites.

In 2. 00. 3, 5. 6% of the country's total land area was protected. The ban on hunting in closed reserves is only sporadically enforced, and the nation's wildlife is threatened by poaching and habitat destruction. According to a 2. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), the number of threatened species included 1. Threatened species included the white- breasted guinea fowl, the hartebeest, Pel's flying squirrel, the black crowned crane, the red- capped monkey, and the great white shark.

The population of Ghana in 2. United Nations (UN) at 2. In 2. 00. 5, approximately 3% of the population was over 6. There were 1. 02 males for every 1.

According to the UN, the annual population rate of change for 2. The government has become involved in programs aimed at slowing population growth, especially by educating adolescents about reproductive health. The projected population for the year 2. The population density was 9. The UN estimated that 4. The capital city, Accra, had a population of 1,8.

Other large cities and their estimated populations were Kumasi (8. Tema (2. 09,0. 00). For generations, immigrants from Burkina Faso and Togo did much of the manual work, including mining, in Ghana; immigrant traders from Nigeria conducted much of the petty trade; and Lebanese and Syrians were important as intermediaries. In 1. 96. 9, when many foreigners were expelled, Ghana's alien community was about 2,0. In 1. 98. 6, the government estimated that at least 5.

Ghana, mostly engaged in trading. Ghanaians also work abroad, some as fishermen in neighboring coastal countries. Many Ghanaians were welcomed in the 1. Nigeria, which was in the midst of an oil boom and in need of cheap labor. In early 1. 98. 3, as the oil boom faded, up to 7. Ghanaians were expelled from Nigeria; soon after, however, many deportees were reportedly being invited back by Nigerian employers unable to fill the vacant posts with indigenous labor. But in May 1. 98.

Ghanaians again were expelled from Nigeria. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) organized a plan for the voluntary repatriation of some 1. Liberian refugees; since June 1.

Of those Liberian refugees remaining in Ghana, another 4,0. Ghana or be resettled in third countries. Repatriation efforts for both Liberian and Togolese refugees were ongoing in 1. Also in 1. 99. 9, both Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugees were still arriving in Ghana in sizable numbers. In 2. 00. 0 the number of migrants living in Ghana was 6. In 2. 00. 4, Ghana hosted some 4. Liberians. Asylum seekers numbered 6,0.

Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and C. As a percentage of GDP this increase is even more significant, 2. In 2. 00. 5 the net migration rate was estimated as 0. The government views the migration levels as satisfactory.

It is fairly certain that Ghana has been occupied by Negroid peoples since prehistoric times. Members of the Akan family, who make up about 4. Twi, or Ashanti, inhabiting the Ashanti Region and central Ghana, and the Fanti, inhabiting the coastal areas. In the southwest, the Nzima, Ahanta, Evalue, and other tribes speak languages related to Twi and Fanti. The Moshi- Dagomba constitute about 1. Ewe 1. 3%, the Ga 8%, the Gurma 3%, and the Yoruba 1%. The Accra plains are inhabited by tribes speaking variants of Ga, while east of the Volta River are the Ewe living in what used to be British- mandated Togoland.

All these tribes are fairly recent arrivals in Ghana, the Akan having come between the 1. Ga- Adangbe in the 1. Ewe in the 1. 7th century. Most of the inhabitants of the Northern Region belong to the Mole- Dagbani group of Voltaic peoples or to the Gonja, who appear to bear some relation to the Akan. European and other groups account for only 1. Of the 5. 6 indigenous languages and dialects spoken in Ghana, 3. The languages follow the tribal divisions, with the related Akan languages of Twi and Fanti being most prominent.

Also widely spoken are Moshi. Dagomba, Ewe, and Ga. English is the official language and is the universal medium of instruction in schools.

It is officially supplemented by five local languages. An estimated 6. 9% of the population belong to various Christian denominations, 1.

Muslims (though Muslim leaders claim the number is closer to 3. Baha'i Faith, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Shintoism, Ninchiren Shoshu Soka Gakkai, Sri Sathya Sai Baba Sera, Sat Sang, Eckanker, the Divine Light Mission, Hare Krishna, and Rastafarianism.

Christian denominations include Roman Catholics, three branches of Methodists, Anglicans, Mennonites, two branches of Presbyterians, Evangelical Lutherans, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints, Seventh- Day Adventists, Pentecostals, Baptists, and Society of Friends. Some Christians also include elements of indigenous religions in their own practices, particularly magic and divination.