Ghana

Ghana is a country located on the Gulf of Guinea, only a few degrees north of the Equator. The country spans an area of over 90,000 sq miles surrounded by Togo to the east, Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north and the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Ocean) to the south.
In 1957, resource-rich Ghana was the first African nation to achieve independence. However, soon after it fell victim to corruption and mismanagement. Following a series of coups, the constitution of April 1992 ushered in a new period of democracy and Ghana has since had five consecutive free-and-fair elections. It is now seen as a model for political and economic reform in Africa. It was the first country to submit itself to being reviewed under the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) in 2005 and has been regularly reviewed since.

On a recent state visit, his first in Africa, President Barack Obama said:

“Here in Ghana, you show us a face of Africa that is too often overlooked by a world that sees only tragedy or a need for charity. The people of Ghana have worked hard to put democracy on a firmer footing, with improved governance and an emerging civil society, Ghana's economy has shown impressive rates of growth”

Cocoa is an essential part of Ghana’s economy and the discovery of major offshore oil reserves in June 2007 is encouraging expectations of a major economic boost in the coming years. As a result, although about a quarter of Ghana’s 23M population still lives below the national poverty line, Ghana has one of the fastest rates of poverty reduction in Africa.

It is an ethnically diverse country; thus, Ghanaian culture is a mixture of all its ethnic groups, most evident in Ghanaian cuisine, the arts and clothing. The celebration of festivals in Ghana is an essential part of Ghanaian culture, many rites and rituals are performed throughout the year in various parts of the country, including child-birth, rites of passage, puberty, marriage and death.