Jomoro District

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Jomoro District
country GhanaGhana Ghana
region Western region
Capital Helped Assini
District shape common
District Chief Executive Martin Yamikeh Ackah
surface 1,350 km²
population 110,312 (2002)
Population density 82 Ew. / km²

Jomoro is a district in the Western Region in Ghana .

geography

Jomoro forms a land area of ​​1,344 km² in the area between 4 ° 55 '- 5 ° 15'N and 2 ° 15' - 2 ° 45'W, in the north to the districts of Aowin and Wassa Amenfi West , in the east to the district Ellembelle , bordering the Ivory Coast to the west and the Gulf of Guinea to the south . District capital is Half Assinie .

The waters of the district are the rivers Tano , Angesa and Amansuri (Amanzulley), or their tributaries, as well as the Gmenye lagoon (a tributary of the Tendo lagoon), into which the Tano pours, and the Amansuri lagoon. The Tendo lagoon, with the exception of the Gmenye lagoon, is located entirely in the territory of the Ivory Coast. The border with Ghana runs a little south of the south and south-east bank of the Tando lagoon as far as the town of Newtown at 5 ° 6 ′  N , 3 ° 6 ′  W (Affonorou on French maps), which is on the spit between the ocean and the lagoon Ghanaian side is located.

Cities in Jomoro District are: Akobre, Allowule, Bonyeri (Bonyere) ( 5 ° 1 ′  N , 2 ° 44 ′  W ), Edu ( 5 ° 5 ′  N , 2 ° 51 ′  W ), Ekpu, Ellenda, Elloyin, Elubo ( 5 ° 17 ′  N , 2 ° 46 ′  W ), Ezinlobo, Jewi or Jewi Wharf ( 5 ° 4 ′  N , 2 ° 56 ′  W ), Kengen, Mpataba ( 5 ° 5 ′  N , 2 ° 35 ′  W ) , Nawuley, Nvellenu-Bawia (Nvelenu) ( 5 ° 4 ′  N , 2 ° 32 ′  W ), Nuba ( 5 ° 3 ′  N , 2 ° 36 ′  W ), Samenye, Takinta, Tikobo (1) ( 5 ° 3 ′  N , 2 ° 42 ′  W ), Tikobo (2) ( 5 ° 5 ′  N , 2 ° 32 ′  W )

( Note: These places are officially named as cities of the Jomoro district by the Ghanaian authorities, although the criteria by which a city is defined are not explained in more detail classified as urban. According to the referendum of March 26, 2000, however, only 32,685 people lived in urban areas in the Jomoro District, so that the application of the city ​​term to some of the places mentioned is not justified. )

36% of the land area of ​​Jomoro is used for agriculture, 8% is built-up area, 22% is state forest reserves and 4% is fallow land. The remaining land area is covered with natural rainforest with extensive mangrove swamps .

According to today's classification, the local climate belongs to the humid and dry tropical climate zone. Elsewhere, the local climate type is referred to as the equatorial monsoon climate . It is characterized by two rainy seasons that occur April - July and September - November. The annual average rainfall is 1,732 mm, the driest time of the year is December - January.

population

At the time of the referendum on March 26, 2000, 110,972 people lived in the Jomoro district, 32,685 of them in cities and 78,287 in rural areas. The mean settlement density was 83 people / km². The annual population growth is estimated at 3%. The majority of the population is Akan in origin . The Nzema dialect of the Akan languages is mainly spoken in the Jomoro district , along with Fante and Twi, which also belong to this language group.

economy

Jumoro's agriculture employs 90% of the district's working population. Traditional agricultural products in the region are coconuts , cocoa , palm oil and rubber . Today's main crops are cassava (a subspecies of cassava), bananas , rice , maize , cocoyam ( tannia ), pineapple and various vegetables. Export crops are ginger , black pepper and sunflowers . The average farm size is 10.8 hectares with tree plantings and 100 m² - 3400 m² with small-growing fields.

Another important industry in the Jomoro District is fishing. There are currently 199 registered fishing boats (2006) employing around 3,500 people. The main fishing spots are Half Assini, Akobre and Effasu.

Tourism as an economic sector is becoming increasingly important, especially ecotourism.

Tourist sights

  • Fort Apollonia in Beyin
  • Ankasa Nini Suhien National Park
  • an attractive 60 km stretch of beach between Ekebaku and Newtown
  • the Amansuri Conservation and Integrated Development (ACID) project as a nature reserve, which is a joint project of the Dutch government and the Ghana Wildlife Society:
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Culture

The annual cultural highlight is the Kundum Festival, which is celebrated in September / October. The main celebrations for this take place in Beyin. There are also several city-specific festivals. The period December 26th - January 1st is a family festival.

history

The area "Jumoree" formed part of the kingdom of Apollonia in historical times , which extended in the coastal areas between the rivers Tano and Ankobra . However, on the map of Bowdich , who was head of a British delegation at the court of Asantehene in 1817 and who, according to the information he received here, drew a map of western Africa, the area between the "Assinie" river and the Ancobra is shown referred to as Amanahea , which was probably the native name of Apollonia at the time. In colonial times the area was called Nzima by the British and Zéma by the French.

At the beginning of the 1650s there was a Swedish trading post near Beyin on the site of the later fort. After the Swedes were driven out, the Dutch tried to establish themselves there.

Wilhelm Bosmann , who worked as a Dutch assessor on the Gold Coast in the 1690s , describes the area between Assinie and Rio Cobra as a bad area for trade, as the gold offered here is of little value (because of gold adulteration), but that it is here there was a very extensive trade and an abundance of gold in the early 1680s and before that.

On the map of the Guinea coast by the French geographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville from 1729, the area around the Cap de Sainte Apollonia is marked as the sphere of influence of Denkira. With regard to the coastal town of Vieux Issini (Old Assinie), it is mentioned here: "ruined by the Denkiras".

The British were present in Beyin from 1750 and built Fort Apollonia here in 1768 . But already in 1835 the fort was abandoned and a ruin. It was probably rebuilt later, because it is mentioned by name in the documents on the British-Dutch exchange from 1868 and those of the sale of the Dutch possessions from 1872.

In 1785 an Ashantin army invades Aowin (coastal hinterland) and causes panic on the coast. From here on, Apollonia is probably under Ashantic suzerainty.

In 1830 a treaty between the British and the Ashanti King a. a. also the kingdom of Apollonia its independence. (This is a sequel to the Battle of Dudowa on August 26, 1826, which ended in the crushing defeat of the Ashanti army.)

In 1835 fighting broke out on the stretch of beach between Apollonia (Beyin) and Axim between the British and the troops of the then extremely cruel tyrant King of Apollonia, Kwaku Akka. With the personal support of the Dutch and the British ship HMS “Britomart”, it was possible at that time to drive the Apollonians westwards along the beach over long stretches. After a constant advance under constant fire, the fighting in front of the ruins of the former Fort Apollonia ended with a victory for the Europeans.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ You can see the exact boundary line at the lagoon, for example. For example, see in Google Earth, if you call up the location "Newtown, Western Ghana" or the location coordinates.
  2. ↑ Note: In the Anglophone language area, a distinction is made between "old cocoyam" and "new cocoyam". With regard to West Africa, mostly "new cocoyam" (Tannia) from the genus Xanthosoma is meant.
  3. ↑ Apollonia is the historical European name for the region later known as Nzima. The name probably goes back to the Dutch and is derived from the local Cape Saint Apollonia.
  4. ^ A contract between the Dutch and six Jumoree chiefs was signed on January 10, 1654. The original wording of this contract (in Dutch) can be found at: JG Doorman, The Dutch-West-Indian Compagnie on the Gold Coast , Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (Batavia), 40 (5/6) (1898) 387 -496 to be found. In Kwame Yeboah Daaku, Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast 1600–1720 , Oxford 1970, the wording of a Dutch contract with (the same) six Jumoree chiefs is also reproduced, although it is dated January 16, 1657.

Sources and literature

See also

Web links