GHANA

1. Motto:"Freedom and Justice” • Anthem:God bless our Homeland The Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by the 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 and is derived from the ancient Ghana Empire. The Gold Coast achieved independence from the United Kingdom's colonial rule in 1957. becoming the first Sub-Saharan African nation to do so A global poll in 2012 found that Ghana was the most religious country in the world. Ghana is a member of the South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone, the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, and an associate member of La Francophonie. Ghana is one of the largest cocoa producers in the world and is also home to Lake Volta, the largest artificial lake in the world by surface area. GHANA

2. GHANA • Kwame Nkrumah, was the first prime minister. There is archaeological evidence showing that humans have lived in present-day Ghana since the Bronze Age. However, until the 11th century, the majority of modern Ghana's area was largely unoccupied. Although the area of present-day Ghana has experienced many population movements, the major ethnic groups in Ghana today were firmly settled by the 16th century. The flag of Ghana, consisting of the colours red, gold, green, and the black star, became the new flag in 1957. Designed by Theodosia Salome Okoh, the red represents the blood that was shed towards independence, the gold represents the mineral wealth of Ghana, the green symbolises the rich agriculture, and the black star is the symbol of African emancipation.Formed from the merger of the Gold Coast and British (formerly German) Togoland by a United Nations-sponsored plebiscite in 1956, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence in 1957. • Kwame Nkrumah, was the first prime minister.

3. GHANA • It is also the standard language used for educational instruction • Christianity is the country's largest religion • Football is the most popular sport. The national men's football team is known as the Black Stars • English is the country's official language • The music of Ghana is diverse and varies between different ethnic groups and regions • A group of drummers performing in the Capital city of Accra • Presently, Ghana has 21,530 primary schools, 8,850 junior secondary schools, 900 senior secondary schools, 52 public training colleges, 5 private training colleges, 5 polytechnical institutions, 4 non-university public tertiary institutions, 8 public universities and over 45 private tertiary institutions. • With over 95% of its children in school, Ghana currently has one of the highest school enrolment rates in all of Africa

4. GHANA • Ghana is one of the largest cocoa producers in the world • It was an indigenous plant in the rain forests of central and southern America, and so rare and expensive that only the royalty of Inca or Aztecs were permitted to eat it. • The Portuguese and Spanish both stole cocoa plants from Ghana to grow elsewhere. • The Swiss were interested in developing chocolate products as an expensive luxury food. The Swiss Missionaries who came to the Gold Coast in the early nineteenth century, and to Kwawu in 1888 • The Swiss set up a collecting warehouse, called a "factory," to collect the cocoa beans from the cash crop farmers and ship them to Switzerland, making Switzerland a name for itself as a producer of fine chocolate. Growth & Cultivation • The cocoa tree must grow under the big rain forest hardwoods to be sheltered from the heavy sun. • The pods grow on the side of the trunk, not on the branches. • The pods must be harvested, split open to obtain the beans, and they allowed to ferment in the forest floor, for the outer pulp to fall off, before they are brought to the village to dry.