
Formed
from the merger of the British colony of the Gold Coast and the
Togoland trust territory, Ghana in 1957 became the first country
in colonial Africa to gain its independence. A long series of
coups resulted in the suspension of the constitution in 1981
and the banning of political parties. A new constitution, restoring
multiparty politics, was approved in 1992. Lt. Jerry RAWLINGS,
head of state since 1981, won presidential elections in 1992
and 1996, but was constitutionally prevented from running for
a third term in 2000. He was succeeded by John KUFUOR, who defeated
former Vice President Atta MILLS in a free and fair election. Location::
Western
Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between Cote d'Ivoire and
Togo. Climate:
Tropical;
warm and comparatively dry along southeast coast; hot and humid
in southwest; hot and dry in north Borders:
Burkina
Faso 549 km, Cote d'Ivoire 668 km, Togo 877 km More... Ghana is situated
on the southern coast of the West African bulge and is bordered
to the east by Togo, to the west by the Ivory Coast, to the south
by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and northwest by Burkina
Fasso.
The coastline consists mostly of a low sandy, foreshore 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 and then eastward
into Ashanti for about 170 miles, is broken up into heavily wooded hills and
steep ridges. 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 2,9000 feet in a range of hills
on the eastern border. Apart from the Volta, only the Pra and the Ankobra rivers
permanently pierce the sand dunes, most of the other rMay 1al harbours.