History of Ghana

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The history of Ghana is the history of the modern state of Ghana , the previous European colonization of this area and the pre-colonial history of the peoples and empires in the area of ​​the present state. The original Kingdom of Ghana was much further north than present-day Ghana in the Sahel region . Although this empire is the namesake of the modern state of Ghana, today's Ghana has no historical references to it. With the name "Ghana", the founders of the state wanted to tie in with the size of this mighty black African empire.

Location of the current state of Ghana within Africa
Natural structure of Ghana

Early history of present-day Ghana

The area of ​​what is now Ghana was first settled by humans around 150,000 to 200,000 years ago. A long dry phase began 135,000 years ago and lasted until around 75,000 years ago, as excavations on Lake Bosumtwi in the south of the country have shown. In terms of cultural history, these first inhabitants of Ghana belonged to the Sangoan culture, a culture that characterizes the transition from the older to the younger Paleolithic . Important sites are Asokrochona and Tema II, where the Sangoan layer was dated to 13,000 to 20,000 and 20,000 to 25,000 years ago. Both layers were ascribed to the Askrochan.

The beginning of an extremely dry period, which began about 25,000 years ago and lasted until 13,000 years ago, however, caused these Sangoan people to leave the increasingly inhospitable plains.

The beginning of the repopulation of the country is not known. The oldest ceramic finds in what is now Ghana have been dated to an age of around 5,800 years. In general, the time of the appearance of ceramics is equated with the start of food production through agriculture.

Around 4,000 to around 3,500 years ago the climate in West Africa and western Central Africa experienced a brief but intense dry phase with strong winds. The vegetation of the plains took on savanna-like features and the previously dense rainforest receded slightly with increased clearing of its peripheral zones. About 3,800 to 3,700 years ago there was a phenomenal increase in the occurrence of the oil palm ( Eleas guineensis ). During this time, the Kintampo culture was another prehistoric cultural stage on the northern edge of the rainforest belt. Stone buildings, axes and pottery around 3400 years old have been found in 30 different locations in Northern Ghana. This culture was already characterized by a very complex economic system with a mixture of field-based forest land management and food-producing livestock farming in the savannah. The keeping of sheep and goats can be proven with certainty for the period between 3,550 and 3,750 years ago, and cattle were probably also kept in the later period. The rainforest, which became lighter due to the drought, and the sudden increase in the appearance of the oil palm, which provided food, fiber and building material, probably promoted the development process of arable forest management. Nevertheless, at the height of the dry phase, people seem to have left the increasingly inhospitable areas again.

While the Sangoan people lived in northern Ghana and on the coast, the Kintampo culture was limited to northern Ghana. The central woodland of Ghana, it was assumed until 2010, was hardly populated until 800 years ago. In the meantime, however, it has been shown that there were already settlements in the first centuries AD.

Pre-colonial empires and peoples in what is now Ghana

The great empires in the north

The earliest founding of an empire on Ghanaian territory took place in the north of the country. At the beginning of the 15th century the Dagomba founded a powerful kingdom (see Kingdom of Dagomba ), later the Mamprusi and in the 16th century the Gonja . All of these empires were culturally influenced by the Mossi of today's Burkina Faso and based their power on horsemen, which were reminiscent of European knights in their armament and light armor. These equestrian armies found their limits in the tropical conditions of the woodland in central Ghana, where, for example, the spread of the tse-tse fly made it impossible to keep cattle and thus horses. The empires of the north were Islamized early, but retained large parts of their traditional beliefs.

The Akan states of the woodlands of central Ghana

The woodlands of central Afghanistan were barely populated until around 1200. Probably from the 13th century a certain migration movement from the north began in this area. The Akan peoples migrated to their current settlement area in central Ghana. This migratory movement only intensified at the end of the 15th / beginning of the 16th century, when the importation of (field) fruits such as bananas , millet or Kassawa (manioc) from Southeast Asia or America enabled more intensive colonization of this rainforest area. The Akan peoples now began to organize themselves into smaller political units. One of the first historically documented kingdoms of the still fragmented Akan peoples was the Kingdom of Bono . Later, in the 17th century, the Denkyra ruled large parts of central Afghanistan. Their power was broken by the Ashanti Kingdom, founded in 1695 , whose rapid rise ended the fragmentation of the Akan states and led to the emergence of a regional great power that soon came into conflict with the growing Europeans.

The peoples of the south

In the 15th and 16th centuries already lived in the south of Ghana the peoples who still settle there today: the Fanti , Nzema , Ga , Ewe and others. However, none of these peoples had organized themselves into larger, centralized states at the time. In their myths of origin, the Ewe even provided a kind of ideological justification for their aversion to larger political entities. According to their oral traditions, their ancestors had fled the east from a tyrannical ruler.

When the first Europeans reached the Ghanaian coast, they therefore encountered a large number of small chiefdoms.

First contacts with Europeans: 1471 to 1800

The two forts of Elmina in a historical representation

The inhabitants of the coast of today's Ghana had very early and intensive contact with European traders and soldiers. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the so-called Gold Coast in 1471. Already in 1482 they received the permission of local rulers to build a fortified base, the Fort São Jorge da Mina in today's Elmina . The Portuguese were soon followed by other Europeans: Swedes , Danes , Dutch , British , Brandenburgers and French traded with the inhabitants of the coast, built fortresses and often fought among themselves. On no part of the coast of Africa is there such a density of European forts as on the coast of Ghana. Often times, these fortresses were built by European powers within sight of one another. The fortresses were primarily trading posts and not starting points for colonial conquests. Usually they were not owned by European powers, but places acquired by African powers through a lease. The Europeans were interested in the country's gold and spices, from the 17th century increasingly on slaves who were sold to America in the Atlantic triangular trade. The Africans received rifles, ammunition and cloth in exchange. European seafarers and traders relied on the cooperation of the locals, and trade between Europeans and Africans took place on an equal footing. The slaves were also sold to the Europeans by Africans (often by powerful African merchants or “trade princes” such as the so-called Jan Conny ) and were not the result of European raids on the coast. This early phase of contact with the Europeans must be clearly distinguished from the later colonial subjugation. As a result of these contacts, there are many fair-skinned people on the coast of Ghana today and English, Dutch, Portuguese, Danish or French surnames such as da Costa, Hayford, Lemaire, Vroom or Simpson are not uncommon.

By 1800 the British and the Dutch had prevailed against the rest of the European competition, the balance of power between Africans and Europeans and with it the character of the European-African exchange began to change.

Time of the Ashanti Empire

The Ashanti Empire at the height of its power in the middle of the 19th century

In 1695, the divided Ashanti principalities were united for the first time under the first Asantehene Osei Tutu . The rise of the empire to a regional great power began in 1699, when the Ashanti succeeded in a two-year war to free themselves from the tribute obligation for the empire of the Denkyra and to conquer various areas previously under the rule of the Denkyra. The lease contract for the forts of Elmina fell into the hands of the Ashanti, who thus had the possibility of direct trade with Europeans, namely with the Dutch, as the most important spoils of war. In 1744 the Ashanti conquered the powerful kingdom of the Dagomba in northern Ghana and extended their power over almost the entire national territory of what is now Ghana, with the exception of a narrow coastal strip. The power of the Ashanti Federation was certainly based on the wealth of gold in Ashantiland and its excellent military organization, which was strengthened by firearms acquired by the Europeans. But there was also the inner strength of the empire, the basis of which was a state ideology that was created under Osei Tutu and the priest Okomfo Anokie at the end of the 17th century: the belief in the power of the so-called golden chair , which holds the spirit of all Ashanti embodied. In various steps, the empire had also received an almost modern-looking internal organization, with a kind of professional civil service and an administration based, among other things, on literate Muslims from the north. 1814-16 the Asantehene Osei Bonsu defeated the united Akim and Akwapim in the Ashanti-Akim-Akwapim War , and the British had to recognize the suzerainty of Ashanti over the entire south coast of today's Ghana outside the direct area of ​​their forts. An attempt by British Governor McCarthy to break Ashanti power ended in disastrous defeat in 1824. His army was defeated and he committed suicide so as not to fall into the hands of the Ashanti. The Ashanti Empire was at the height of its power. It covered an area that went beyond what is now the national territory of Ghana, and various vassal states had to deliver a certain number of slaves as tribute to the Ashanti every year.

The rest of the 19th century was marked by various wars and campaigns between Ashanti and the British, in which the Ashanti defeated the British several times. In 1874 the tide turned, British troops under Sir Garnet Wolseley captured Kumasi , the capital of the Ashanti, sacked the city and set it on fire. In the Treaty of Fomena , the Ashanti had to renounce all their rights on the coast; the slave trade, formerly the main source of income for the Ashanti, was declared illegal.

This cleared the way for a consolidation of British power on the Gold Coast.

British rule

The road to colonial rule: 1821 to 1900

Cannons from Cape Coast Castle, formerly the seat of the British Governor

At the beginning of the 19th century, only three European powers were represented with fortified trading posts on the Gold Coast: the British, the Dutch and the Danes. These European forts were each administered by private, state-privileged trading companies. In 1821, after repeated unsuccessful pressure from merchants and settlers, the Colonial Office in London took control of the British fortresses, but from 1828 left a council of British merchants on site to manage the forts and their residents. From 1829 George Maclean was president of this council , who until his death in 1847 ensured that the British sphere of influence on the Gold Coast encompassed an approximately 40-kilometer-wide coastal strip well beyond the forts. British law was largely in force in this area and the British acted as mediators in disputes between local rulers. The increasing competition with the emerging Ashanti empire and the alliance obligations towards the Fanti, allied with the British, led to an increased military presence of the British in the following decades. In 1842 England took direct control of this area and installed a governor based at Cape Coast Castle . In 1844 he concluded the so-called Bund of 1844 with the Fanti , in which the Fanti largely recognized the factual validity of British law in their area. In 1850 the British bought their remaining forts on the Gold Coast from the Danes and shortly afterwards introduced a poll tax in their sphere of influence. In 1868 the British and Dutch agreed to exchange various forts in order to simplify administration. However, due to local resistance, the Dutch had significant problems taking control of their newly acquired possessions (see for example Dixcove ). In 1872 the Dutch gave up and sold their last fortresses on the Gold Coast to the British, who no longer had any European competition on this coast. At around the same time, the traditional heads and the “(western) educated elite” of the Fanti tried to establish an independent state based on the European model in the heart of the British zone of influence. This so-called fan federation existed from 1868 to 1873, but failed due to internal disputes and the boycott by the British.

Negotiations of the Asantehene Prempeh I with a British general

In 1874 there was another war with the Ashanti. The trigger was the lease payments that the Ashanti demanded from the British for the now British forts of Elmina. The British defeated the Ashanti, forced them to recognize their sovereignty over almost all of southern Ghana in the aforementioned Treaty of Fomena , and thus had defeated the last power in the region that had still resisted them.

In 1874, southern Ghana was declared the Gold Coast crown colony . In 1896 the British finally forced the Ashanti militarily to recognize their rule over Ashantiland as a " protectorate " and abducted the ruling Asantehene to the Seychelles . Under the leadership of the Queen Mother of Edweso, an Ashanti sub-state, the Ashanti undertook one last military uprising in 1900, which the British brought under control only with difficulty and with the use of troops from overseas. In the same year the British took control of northern Ghana (after the border conflicts with the neighboring German colony of Togo had been resolved in the Samoa Treaty ).

British rule of the Gold Coast from 1900 to 1945

The flag of the British Colony of Gold Coast

As a result of the First World War, the western half of the former German Togo, which was given to the British in 1919 as a League of Nations mandate area, also became part of the British Gold Coast as British Togoland .

Within the Gold Coast, a distinction was also made between the Crown Colony, the Protectorate of Ashantiland and the Northern Territories . The form of colonial exercise of power within these three areas was very different. In the “Crown Colony”, the locals were able to exercise political activity in the modern sense of the word to a certain extent: Political associations could be formed without the approval of the British and there was extensive freedom of the press. English law prevailed and lawyers were able to combat excesses of colonial rule. Due to the longer British influence, there were also a large number of Western educated Africans who cooperated with the colonial administration and controlled it to some extent. In the “Protectorate”, on the other hand, the British tried to destroy Ashanti imperialism and its remaining traditions until the 1920s. Lawyers were forbidden to practice their profession; political associations had to disguise themselves as cultural or social associations. The “Northern Territories”, in turn, were not involved at all in the later attempts at political reform within the Gold Coast. For example, they had no vote on the Legislative Council of the so-called Burns Constitution , through which a rudimentary form of representation of natives in the government of the colony was to be achieved in the 1940s. Governor Gordon Guggisberg tried in the Aschanti area and in the Northern Territories in the 1920s to enforce his ideas of indirect rule (Indirect rule).

The road to independence: 1945 to 1951

Nevertheless, since the Second World War, efforts to achieve long-term independence on the Gold Coast have increased. 65,000 Ghanaians fought on the British side in the Second World War in the name of “freedom and democracy” and are now calling for the same for their homeland. Many posts were reserved for whites and closed to educated Ghanaians. In 1946 a new constitution, the Burns Constitution , came into effect for the Gold Coast, which for the first time established a native majority in a legislative council in a British colony in Africa. However, the representatives on this council were predominantly chosen by the traditional chiefs, and the northern territories were left without representation. The so-called Accra Riots ( German  Accra riots ) of 1948 represented a turning point in the general mood . A peaceful demonstration by former administrative employees ended with the deaths of several demonstrators by police bullets. This led to riots in Accra and various other cities. A total of 29 people died in the protests. Demands for the country's early independence were more popular than ever. In the wake of these unrest, the future first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah , became known nationwide. His then party, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), founded in 1947 , multiplied its membership. A body made up of mostly traditional chiefs and the leaders of the UGCC was supposed to draft a new constitution in order to counteract the public's indignation. Nkrumah was not a member of this body, despite its great popularity. In 1949 he founded his own party, the Convention People's Party with the main program item "self-government now!". The colonial administration used reprisals against supporters of the new party. In 1950, the Trades Union Congress of Ghana , then an integral part of the CPP, called a general strike . The colonial government declared a state of emergency, had Nkrumah arrested and sentenced to three years in prison. In 1951 the first elections took place according to the rules of the constitution that had just come into force. Nkrumah's CPP achieved an overwhelming victory wherever direct elections were possible, and Nkrumah himself received a mandate. Governor Charles Arden-Clarke accepted the so clearly expressed will of the people, ordered Nkrumah to be released from prison and offered him the post of "head of government".

The road to independence: 1951 to 1956

Sliced ​​cocoa bean, the basis of the boom in Ghana in the 1950s

1951 to 1956 (two terms of office) the Gold Coast now had a government of the CPP led by Nkrumah with British rule still in place. Benefiting from full coffers due to the enormous increase in cocoa prices on the world market, but also a consistent infrastructure policy , Ghana experienced unprecedented progress in this phase: an asphalt road between Accra and Sekondi-Takoradi and other important routes within the country were built and rail lines began. The expansion of the deep-sea port of Takoradi progressed rapidly, and construction of a new deep-sea port at Tema began. With measures to combat a rampant cocoa disease and a new system of buying up at fixed prices, cocoa cultivation experienced an enormous boom. Great progress has been made in health and education infrastructure. The reservation of jobs for Europeans was lifted and the number of “senior posts” held by Africans rose from 171 in 1949 to 3,000 in 1957. In 1954 a new constitution came into force, with a parliament whose members were consistently direct were chosen. Nkrumah received the title of Prime Minister. The women's suffrage was introduced 1955th However, this clear progress was accompanied by increasing corruption and the first dictatorial tendencies in the behavior of Kwame Nkrumah, who had several of his most important companions expelled from the CPP.

In the Ashanti area, a new regional party, the National Liberation Movement (NLM), formed from circles of former CPP supporters . There was violence between supporters of both parties. The British Secretary of State for the Colonies therefore called for new elections to be held before the country was granted independence. Contrary to expectations, Nkrumah's CPP won the majority in all parts of the country in these elections in 1956 - except for the Aschanti area, where his party received a third of the votes. In the same year, the population of British Togoland decided in a referendum to join a newly formed state of Ghana. On March 6, 1957, the colonial history of the Gold Coast ended with the independence of Ghana.

Independent Ghana

The Nkrumah era

1957–1960: Consolidation of power and international success

Independence Arch in Accra

When Ghana became the first former colony in Black Africa to declare its independence on March 6, 1957 , it had better prerequisites than most of the other, later emerging states on the continent. There was a comparatively broad, western class, rich gold mines in Aschantiland, an export-oriented branch of agriculture with high foreign exchange rates and considerable foreign exchange reserves from the previous years of the cocoa boom.

However, the structure of the Ghanaian economy was still colonial; foreign capital dominated mining, banking, and trade. Until 1960, the declared socialist Kwame Nkrumah still pursued a liberal economic policy , granted foreign investors tax breaks and enabled them to transfer profits in order to attract additional capital for his ambitious industrialization policy. At the center of the industrialization plans was the Volta River Project , i.e. the construction of the Akosombo Dam , which should supply Ghana's future industry with electricity and turn the country into an electricity exporter. This project could only be realized with US capital and credit. A western-oriented economic policy was necessary for this. The development of the country progressed particularly in the area of ​​education, schools were built and two universities were founded.

Domestically, Nkrumah turned increasingly dictatorial means against the regionalism of the Ashanti and the Ewe nationalism in the Volta region , which threatened not only the cohesion of the state but also his personal power. A 1957 law against tribalism (" tribalism ") enabled him to remove regional politicians as he saw fit. When various regional opposition parties united to form the United Party , he passed a law under which people who threatened the security of the state could be arrested without trial. The trade union confederation Trade Union Congress and the Council of Farmers of Ghanas ( United Ghana Farmers Council ) lost their independence and were affiliated with the Nkrumah party CPP.

At the international level, Nkrumah tried to advance his concept of Pan-Africanism . He was convinced that Ghana's independence is meaningless as long as it is not linked to the total liberation of the African continent . Only a united Africa would escape the fate of becoming the plaything of foreign forces. At the end of the 1950s he held various international congresses in Accra, which were actually of great importance for the liberation movements of the African continent and the process of its decolonization. In 1960 Nkrumah and with him Ghana were at a height of international recognition.

Republic, socialist change and dictatorship: 1960 to 1966

In July 1960 Ghana was declared a republic and Kwame Nkrumah became president (instead of prime minister ) with almost dictatorial powers. Arrests without judgment under the aforementioned State Security Act increased significantly. The former scouts of Ghana were converted into the "Nkrumah youth" and the spearhead of a system of informers. Several unsuccessful attacks were carried out on Nkrumah.

Economically, the country has now turned towards a socialist orientation. Various mining companies were nationalized, and foreign companies were brought under state control. In fact, the liberal economic policy of the 1950s had not achieved the hoped-for success; profits from European companies had flowed out of the country instead of being invested in Ghana. At the same time, cocoa prices fell to a quarter of their value in the mid-1950s. Most of the new, state-controlled companies also proved to be ineffective, suffered from a lack of capital and tempted corruption. There were significant supply shortages in the country. Tax increases, a compulsory savings ordinance and the control of the corrupt state party also turned the union against Nkrumah and led to a strike by railway and dock workers in Takoradi and Kumasi. The obvious advantage in equipping Nkrumah's presidential guard, which formed a kind of private army, in front of the Ghanaian army caused dissatisfaction here too. In 1965, the respected politician and founder of Nkrumah's old party, Dr. JB Danquah in police custody. Nkrumah's popularity was at a low point. During a visit by Nkrumah to Hanoi , North Vietnam , on February 24, 1966, some police and army officers carried out a bloody coup and took power. Nkrumah went into exile in Guinea and later moved to Romania, where he died in Bucharest in 1972.

Military rule 1966 to 1969

The body of the new military rulers called themselves the National Liberation Council, and came under the leadership of Lieutenant General Joseph Arthur Ankrah with the promise to return power to a civilian government by October 1, 1969. The regime renounced acts of revenge against the members of the CPP, released the political prisoners of the Nkrumah era and restored freedom of the press. Investigations into corruption under Nkrumah, however, mostly fizzled out or ended with the issue of a " Persilschein ".

The regime had inherited an enormous mountain of debt and was now trying to reduce it with a strict austerity policy. Prestige projects such as the Accra-Tema motorway were stopped and the number of embassies abroad almost halved. The number of ministries has also been reduced significantly, but not the number of top officials overall. Since these were simultaneously assigned controllers from the military and the police, the number of posts in the higher service increased considerably. The National Liberation Council took a turn to the west in economic and foreign policy, and the International Monetary Fund gained far-reaching influence over national economic policy. The Ghanaian market was opened to the benefit of large foreign companies, and state-owned companies were privatized, which in the agricultural sector benefited mainly medium-sized and large companies. At the same time, laws promoted the “Ghanaization” of small and medium-sized enterprises. Although certain taxes on staple foods were lowered, economic policy was largely unpopular. Unemployment rose as a result of layoffs in the public sector and in privatized companies, wage increases were limited to five percent and the cedi devalued, which made imported goods much more expensive. There were strikes in the gold mines and among railway and dock workers. In 1967 some young officers attempted a coup. The attempted coup ended with two death sentences.

In 1969, Lieutenant General Ankrah was dismissed because he, too, was suspected of corruption (foreign companies had financed him to found his own political party). His successor as head of state was Brigadier Akwasi Afrifa . Immediately after his inauguration, Afrifa lifted the ban on party political activity and set a date for free elections in August 1969, from which a civilian government under the leadership of Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busias emerged .

The second republic 1969 to 1972: Kofi Busia

Five parties were accepted out of 20 parties that had registered to run for the election. The clear winner with 105 out of 140 seats in parliament was the Progress Party under the leadership of Dr. Kofi Busia, the former leader of the opposition to Nkrumah. In second place came the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL) with 29 seats. While the country's conservative elites were behind the Progress Party, the NAL leader was a former Nkrumah minister and his party was linked to the Nkrumah era.

Economically, Busia continued the nationalist and economically liberal course of the military regime. Certain economic areas were reserved for Ghanaians, while import restrictions were relaxed. The government concentrated successfully on promoting rural areas (electrification projects and road construction), but this mainly benefited the larger farmers. At the same time, they accepted a significant deterioration in living conditions for large sections of the city. Falling income from cocoa exports and rising debt servicing led to rigid austerity measures. An aliens law officially directed against foreign traders led to the displacement of a million African workers and small traders under sometimes inhuman conditions. 600,000 of those affected came from Nigeria - which ten years later did something similar with Ghanaian guest workers in their own country. Domestically, Busia's government was not free from undemocratic influence on the press and the judiciary. The national umbrella organization TUC was banned for violence during strikes, and a new union was not allowed. Ethnic tensions and regionalism increased under civilian government and corruption once again became a major problem.

As part of the austerity measures, the army's budget was drastically cut, which caused considerable dissatisfaction there. The social consequences of a 42 percent devaluation of the Cedi in 1971 ultimately tipped the scales in a military coup in early 1972 that brought the second republic to an end.

Military rule 1972–1979: Ignatius Kutu Acheampong and the time of the Kalabule

The governing body of the putschists was called the National Redemption Council , and their leader was Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong . In the first three years of the regime it implemented some popular measures: the devaluation of the cedi was partially reversed, as was the reduction in the incomes of government employees. Above all, however, the regime refused to repay the country's enormous debt burden to international creditors. The economy recovered, benefiting from high gold and cocoa prices and successful campaigns such as Feed yourself and Feed your industry . Politically, Nkrumah was rehabilitated, and after his death in Bucharest in 1972, he received a state funeral in Ghana.

The tide turned in the mid-1970s. While cocoa prices fell, oil prices rose . In addition, there were several years in which agriculture suffered from unfavorable weather conditions. Ghana needed fresh loans and had to abandon its debt refusal policy. The regime began to print banknotes in bulk; inflation peaked at 200 percent. Measures to regulate prices only had the effect that many goods of everyday life and spare parts of all kinds became scarce and disappeared from the official economic cycle. The regime's minions received import licenses - due to the difference between the official and black market rates for the cedi, they were given a license to print money: goods bought cheaply (at the official cedi rate) were sold at black market prices. The corruption reached unprecedented levels. In Ghana this phase is known as the time of calabulas , the time of black market and corruption. In some areas of the country, the shortage reached the level of famine. Acheampong assumed dictatorial power, proclaimed himself a general and imprisoned a large number of his opponents. Several coup attempts failed. In the midst of general decline, he tried to enforce his political idea of ​​a Union government by referendum. This idea consisted of a “joint” government of the military, police and civilians, which in essence would have perpetuated the military regime. In 1978, due to great pressure from the population, there was a palace coup by younger officers who installed the previous Acheampong's deputy, Fred Akuffo , as head of the military council.

The ban on political parties was lifted, a new constitution passed and civilians gradually replaced the military in the government. Elections were to be held in June 1979.

1979–1981: Interlude Rawlings, Interlude Limann

Just before the elections, on June 4, 1979, young officers led a coup d'état by Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings . They announced the intention to “cleanse” Ghana's political and economic elite of corrupt members in order to give the new civilian government a better starting position. Acheampong, Akuffo, Afrifa and other leaders of the old regime were publicly executed. To everyone's surprise, not only did the July 1979 elections go according to plan, but the military returned to the barracks in September of that year, handing power over to the newly elected president.

That president was Hilla Limann of the People's National Party , who received 62 percent of the vote and followed the tradition of Nkrumah's old party. Since the new government was threatened by the extraordinary popularity of the ex-coup leader Jerry Rawlings, he sent him into retirement. Rawlings became increasingly involved as a politician and interviewee of foreign newspapers. Although Limann himself was free from suspicion of corruption, he did not succeed in enforcing effective measures against corruption and the shadow economy. His economic policy also showed no positive effects, and the situation remained catastrophic. After almost two years of civil rule, Jerry Rawlings took power again in 1981.

The Rawlings Era 1981 to 2001

Rawlings issued a party ban, repealed the constitution and headed a "Provisional National Defense Council". In his first years in government he relied on the mobilization of broad sections of the people in his fight against corruption and smuggling and seemed to be pursuing a clearly socialist policy. Base committees and people's courts were established. He had politicians and entrepreneurs who had become rich through corruption indicted and expropriated. “People's shops” should ensure supplies to the population. At first he was sure to get applause from the masses. The economic success did not materialize, however, and against excesses of the system he had created himself he also resorted to unpopular disciplinary measures. Several unsuccessful attacks were carried out on him. The amalgamation of Burkina Faso with Ghana agreed with Burkina Faso's military ruler Thomas Sankara in 1985 failed, however, in 1987 when Sankara was assassinated.

Starting in 1983, Rawlings made a drastic about-face in the face of a catastrophic economic situation exacerbated by a period of drought and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Ghanaian guest workers from Nigeria. Sentences like “Revolutionary activities are no substitute for productive work” showed the new line. Like others before him, he saw no alternative to working with the World Bank and the IMF and their concept of structural adjustment measures . Under the name Economic Recovery Program, there were price increases, wage freezes, the devaluation of the Cedi, closure or privatization of unproductive state-owned enterprises and a strict austerity policy. These measures brought considerable hardship for the population, which Rawlings could only enforce by virtue of his dictatorial power. Child labor increased and school attendance decreased. He did not allow resistance to his policies, and members of the opposition were intimidated. Amazingly, its popularity was still significantly greater than that of the "Provisional National Defense Council".

The success of these measures became apparent at the beginning of the 1990s. Inflation had fallen significantly and at least the situation of the rural population had improved. In order to absorb the increasing pressure for democratization, he held presidential elections in 1992, which he won by a clear margin over his main rivals Albert Adu Boahen and Hilla Limann. Before that, a multi-party system was created. Independent observers described these elections as relatively fair, but of course he had the entire government apparatus ready to support him.

As the main opposition parties boycotted the parliamentary elections that followed, Ghana remained practically a one-party state despite the elections. The most important democratic achievement of this phase was a relatively large freedom of the press. The economic recovery continued, but without a decisive improvement in living conditions for large sections of the population. Six parties competed in the 1996 elections. Rawlings National Democratic Party won with 57 percent of the vote, well ahead of challenger (and later president) John Agyekum Kufuor .

Rawlings himself then started the discussion about his successor and announced that he would not run again in accordance with the constitution. In his last term of office, Ghana ran into economic difficulties again. The terms of trade , the conditions of exchange with the rest of the world, had deteriorated significantly: the prices of raw materials, both for gold and cocoa, had fallen drastically, and the price of oil had risen significantly. The cedi fell into the abyss. At the same time, the country's free press reported more and more frequently about corruption and mismanagement.

The Rawlings Party's NDC candidate for the late 2000 elections, Vice President John Atta Mills , lost the election. This ended after 20 years the era of Jerry Rawlings, whom some viewed as a benevolent (and successful) dictator and others as a tyrant.

Democracy since 2001: John Agyekum Kufuor

Presidential election poster by John Atta-Mills
John Agyekum Kufuor

The winner of the 2000 elections was John Kufuor's New Patriotic Party , which received a relative majority with 100 out of 200 seats . On January 7, 2001, John Kufuor took his oath of office as President of Ghana. The following year he had a so-called National Reconciliation Commission set up to investigate human rights violations by the various illegal regimes since the country's independence. A result of these investigations that was only announced in 2004 is, among other things, the demand that around 3,000 victims of the repression under Rawlings be compensated. At the same time, however, parts of the population have seen a transfiguration of the Rawlings period in recent years, comparable to the Nkrumah renaissance of the 1970s. Also in the following elections on December 7, 2004, John Kufuor prevailed against John Atta-Mills and was confirmed in office in the first round with 52.45 percent for another four years. In the past few years, Ghana has taken in thousands of refugees from the civil war-torn neighboring country Ivory Coast.

In 2008 free democratic elections took place again. For constitutional reasons, President Kufuor could no longer stand for election. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo won the first ballot on December 7th , but missed an absolute majority. In the runoff election that followed, NDC politician Atta-Mills prevailed with 50.23 percent of the vote, while Akufo-Addo only got 49.77 percent, according to the electoral commission in early January 2009.

Today Ghana is considered one of the few functioning democracies in Africa.

See also

literature

  • Joseph Ki-Zerbo : The History of Black Africa. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-596-26417-0 .
  • Basil Davidson : A History of West Africa 1000-1800. Longman, 1978, ISBN 0-582-60340-4 .
  • JB Webster, AA Boahen: Revolutionary Years. West Africa Since 1800 (= Growth of African Civilization. ). Longman, 1984. ISBN 0-582-60332-3 .
  • Walter Schicho : Handbook Africa. In three volumes. Volume 2: West Africa and the islands in the Atlantic. Brandes & Appel, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-86099-121-3 .
  • James Anquandah, Benjamin Kankpeyeng, Wazi Apoh (Eds.): Current Perspectives in the Archeology of Ghana. University of Ghana, 2014.
  • Bassey Andah: Agricultural Beginning and Early Farming Communities in West and Central Africa. In: West African Journal of Archeology. Volume 17, 1987, pp. 171-204.
  • Report of Investigations at the Birimi Site in Northern Ghana. In: Nyame Akuma. No. 48, December 1997, pp. 32-38 (PDF) .

Web links

Commons : History of Ghana  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Kwame Nkrumah: I Speak of Freedom: A Statement of African Ideology. New York 1961, p. 96f.
  2. ↑ Osbjorn M. Pearson: Integration of the genetic, anatomical and archaeological data for the African origin of modern humans: problems and prospects , in: Sally C. Reynolds, Andrew Gallagher (ed.): African Genesis. Perspectives on Hominin Evolution , Cambridge University Press, 2012, pp. 423-449, here: p. 433.
  3. ↑ Pamela R. Willoughby: The Evolution of Modern Humans in Africa: A Comprehensive Guide , Rowman Altamira, 2007, p. 271.
  4. ↑ J. Boachie-Ansah: Excavations at an Earth-work Site at Asaman and their implications for the archeology of the forest areas of Southern Ghana , in: James Anquandah, Benjamin Kankpeyeng, Wazi Apoh (ed.): Current Perspectives in the Archeology of Ghana , University of Ghana, 2014, pp. 18–44.
  5. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 438
  6. ^ National Reconciliation Commission Ghana ( Memento from January 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). In: TRIAL-ch.org (Swiss association).
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on July 15, 2006 in this version .