The name Ghana was derived from ancient Ghana Empire which began in 1830 C.E to 1235 on the western part of Africa. The empire’s growth of trade from the Trans-Sahara Trade brought a lot of wealth and power to West Africa.
The first European explorers to arrive at our shores were the Portuguese in 1471, in the 15th century, led by Don Diogo de Azambuja. They named our land Mina, meaning mine due to the large deposits of gold from river Ankobra to Volta. The land was later named Gold Coast by the British.
From the 1500’s through to 1950’s the Gold Coast has suffered from both slave trade and colonialism.
In 1947, the elite natives of the Gold Coast had conceived the idea of self-government and established a political party, the United Gold Coast Convention (U.G.C.C). The U.G.C.C later appointed Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as it’s General Secretary. In 1949, Dr. Nkrumah broke away to form another political party, the Convention People’s Party (C.P.P). The CPP won by landslide in the first general elections organized by the British in 1951.
In A.D 1957, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was able to secure independence from colonial rule and renamed it Ghana. Ghana happens to be the first black African state to attain political independence. In 1960 Ghana became a republic. This is when and how our current Ghana was born with high hopes of a prosperous country and high living standards for its people to heal the wounds of the past.
The declaration of our independence attracted high dignitaries around the world such as Richard Nixon- vice president of America at the time, Martin Luther king Jnr- a civil right activist and many other dignitaries. The newly declared independent state hosted the first Pan African congress conference in 1958, to give support to other African countries still under colonial rule to attain self-government with the idea of establishing a continental union government, the United States of Africa.
Having secured political independence, Ghana turned to the achievement of economic independence, Dr. Nkrumah had argued that political independence is meaningless without economic independence and Ghana needed to achieve economic independence for social reconstruction.
From 1957, Ghana’s industrial revolution began to take off in sight to achieve economic independence. Tomato Factory, Glass Factory, GIHOC Distilleries, Steel Factories, Cement Factory, Jute Factory, Shoe Factory, establishment of cocoa marketing company now Cocoa Board, West African Mills Kade matches Factory, Komenda Sugar Factory, Tema oil Refinery, many factories and foundries amounting to 68 were built.
Kwame Nkrumah established the University of Science and Technology to produce technically trained academic brains for Ghana’s industrial revolution. The establishment of the university of Cape Coast was meant to produce teachers for the academic development of the future generation.
During this era, government established polytechnics in every region, built basic and secondary school around the country. Government gave the citizens free education.
In the 1950’s government built the Tema harbor and established the Black Star line, a shipping line which was controlled entirely by Ghanaians. Ghana trained its own engineers for its operations. The black star line was meant to export the produce of the various factories the country had established.
Ghana established the first African gliding school at Afienya in 1963 to train its own pilots for the operations of its own national airline, Ghana Airways which was established in 1958. The school went on to train other nationals from other countries. At the time the gliding school was the third best piloting school in the world and Ghanaian pilots were considered one of the best in the world.
When Ghana Airways first landed at Heathrow Airport in London, it was the first time the world had seen an airline established by an African country and wholly operated by Africans trained in Africa. It was unprecedented in world’s history at the time.
Two years prior to the completion of the Akosombo Dam, Ghana had commissioned two subsidiary dams i.e. the Bui Dam and the Akuse Dam. The atomic energy plant has also been commissioned. Dr. Nkrumah had instructed the directors of the atomic plant to research into solar energy because according to Dr. Nkrumah, Ghana wanted to have cheap and abundant power to industrialize.
During this era of rapid significant growth and development, Ghana was years ahead of many countries around the world. At this era a country like Dubai was considered one of the poorest countries in world, today can anyone compare Ghana to Dubai?
Charles Kumi Gyamfi, a Ghanaian footballer and coach who was the first African to play in Germany became the coach of the Black Stars in 1961. Ghana has invested in him to play and train as a coach at Fortuna Dusseldorf in Germany and came back to coach the Black Stars and won the 1963, 1965 and 1982 African Cup of Nations.
Can same to be said about the Black Stars of today?
In 1966, Dr. Nkrumah’s government was toppled through a military coup by the National Liberation Movement (NLM) which was later renamed to National Liberation Council (NLC). The seized power and took control over the country. In 1969, Kofi Abrefa Busia was elected president of the second republic of Ghana.
However, Busia’s rule was short lived, in 1972, Ghana experienced another military coup, the National Redemption Council led by General Kutu Acheampong, took over the country. During this era “operation feed yourself” was launched, there was a bumper harvest and Ghana had excess food to export. The Acheampong government was praised to the high heavens, but the administration was overthrown in a palace coupe and Fred Akuffo took over the affairs of government.
In 1979, another group of military men led by Ft Lt Rawlings staged another coup and returned the country to civilian rule. An election was held and was contested by the Popular Front Party (P.F.P) led by Victor Owusu, United National Conversation (U.N.C) led by William Ofori Atta, Action Congress Party (A.C.P) led by Frank Bernasko and People National Party (P.N.P) led by Dr. Hilla Limann.
Dr. Limann emerged the winner of the election and became President of the third republic. Again, Limann’s government was short lived, in 1981 the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) led by JJ Rawlings toppled the government.
In 1992, Ghana returned to civil rule again. The fourth republic elections had four main contenders but the two main protagonists were the National Democratic Congress (N.D.C) led by Rawlings and the New Patriotic party (N.P.P) led by Albert Adu Boahen. The N.D.C emerged as winners and Rawlings went on to again win the 1996 elections.
The 2000 elections brought the N.P.P led by John Agyekum Kuffour to power. Kuffour who had served in the Busia’s government as Deputy Foreign Minister went on to win a second term in the 2004 elections. The 2008 elections saw the N.D.C led by Prof Atta Mills into power, Prof Mills died as a sitting president and his vice John Mahama took over as president. President Mahama went on the win the 2012 elections and lost the 2016 elections and that brought the NPP led by Akuffo Addo to power.
After 1966, Ghana has seen very limited infrastructure and socio-economic development. All the 68 factories have been grounded, the Black Star line and the Ghana airways are defunct.
Ghana once the bright star and leading light of Africa has now fallen behind many African countries.
How far have we come and where are we heading to as a country?
By Eva Boamah
