Elmina, founded as a settlement around the São Jorge da Mina Castle in 1482 by the Portuguese, is generally considered the first major European-style town and settlement on the coast of present-day Ghana. However, ancient indigenous towns like Begho existed earlier, developing around 1000–1700 AD.
Located directly east of the Korle Lagoon, Jamestown and Usshertown are the oldest districts of Accra, Ghana and emerged as communities around the 17th century British James Fort and Dutch Ussher Fort on the Gulf of Guinea coast.
The first major towns that existed in pre-colonial Ghana included Begho, Bono Manso, Dawhenya and Elmina. The growth of these towns were influenced by factors such as their strategic location, economic and religious attractions, and the presence of large deposits of minerals such as gold and iron.
Ghana started with five regions on March 6, 1957: Ashanti, the Northern, Eastern, Western and the Volta regions. The first region to be created post-independence was the Brong Ahafo Region.
The Guan are the oldest known people to have inhabited the region of modern Ghana. The Guan are found in different parts of the country. They speak the Guan language. They include the Larteh, Efutu, Awutu, Nchumuru and Gonja.
The Rise and Fall of the Ghana Empire: A Story of Wagadu Kings and Wealth
Where are Ghanaians originally from?
The ethnogenesis of Ghanaians is traced back to nomadic migration from Nubia along the Sahara desert then south to the Gold Coast, and the Ghanaian ethnogenesis taking place on the Ghanaian Gold Coast region from the 10th to 16th century AD.
There are seven principal original family groups or clans, called "Abusuabah-ason" among the Tshi nation, to which ten minor ones are connected. The principal original family groups are: Asekyiri, Asona, Agona, Oyoko, Aduena, Asokore and Abrade (Asenee).
Before March 1957 Ghana was called the Gold Coast. The Portuguese who came to Ghana in the 15th century found so much gold between the rivers Ankobra and the Volta that they named the place Mina - meaning Mine. The Gold Coast was later adopted to by the English colonisers.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in 1471; other Europeans, including the British, arrived later, attracted first by gold, ivory and timber, and later by the lucrative slave trade.
The name Ga is actually a cognate of the name Akan, one of a few words in which [g] corresponds to [k] in Akan. Ga also gave its name to the Ga districts surrounding Accra. The spelling Accra was given to Nkran by Europeans. An earlier spelling used by the Danes was Akra.
Shortly after declaring the coastal area a colony, the British moved the colonial capital from Cape Coast to the former Danish castle at Christiansborg in Accra. The British sphere of influence was eventually extended to include Asante.
The present Obo Kwahu is now the most beautiful in the whole Kwahu District and that is why the building at the outskirts are all attractive-looking. The town is well known for its beauty and grand Easter festival. The area is popularly known as is popularly called "Small London".
Renowned as the first major European construction in tropical Africa, St. George's Castle, in the town of Elmina in the Central Region of Ghana, was founded by the Portuguese in 1482.
Yendi is the biggest village in West Africa which has slowly transformed into a cosmopolitan town and the capital of Yendi Municipal district in the Northern Region of Ghana. As of 2021, the population of Yendi was about 118,000 people.
The Ashanti (or Asante), are the dominant ethnic group of a powerful 19th-century empire and today one of Ghana's leading ethnic groups, with more than two million members concentrated in south-central Ghana.
The Asante, also known as Ashanti in English (/əˈʃɑːntiː/), are part of the Akan ethnic group and are native to the Ashanti Region of modern-day Ghana. Asantes are the last group to emerge out of the various Akan civilisations. Twi is spoken by over nine million Asante people as their native language.
Its people knew it as Wagadou or Awkar; Ghana was the title of its kings. According to oral histories, the empire was founded by Dinga Cisse, who united the Soninke tribes of the region. Others suggest that the empire might have been founded by the Berber people of the Sahara.
As Guan were the first settlers in Ghana, some were assimilated into the cultures of the major ethnic groups in the various regions of today. Thus, indigenes of Kpeshie in Greater Accra, Nzema, Sefwi, Ahanta, etc. in the Western and Western Noth region also trace their roots to Guan people.
The Akan (/ˈækæn/) people are a Kwa group living primarily in Ghana and parts of Ivory Coast and Togo in West Africa. The Akan speak languages within the Central Tano branch of the Potou–Tano subfamily of the Niger–Congo family.
