What does ghana mean

The Gur family includes Dagbani, Dagaare, and Frafra, and are found predominantly in the north. Two Kulango languages, previously thought to be Gur, are spoken in the central west border region. Senufo, in the north, is represented by Nafaanra. There are also two Mande languages, Bissa, in the northeast corner, and Ligbi, spoken near Kulango.

Though not an official language, Hausa is the lingua-franca among Ghana's Muslims. Since , all university and college institutions in Ghana provided Chinese language courses. This initiative reflected the People's Republic of China's growing role as a superpower and Ghana's close ties with China.

Christianity is the country's largest religion, and predominates in southern areas and parts of the northern regions, while Islam is more widespread in parts of the northern regions. Christian—Muslim relations in Ghana are peaceful, tolerant and bilateral, without the sectarian violence of neighboring countries with similar regional divides such as Ivory Coast. A declining percentage of the population practice traditional African religions.

Christianity is practiced by some 69 percent of the population, according to the census. Christianity was introduced by Europeans on the coast of Ghana in the fourteenth century, and spread with them. It was introduced northern Ghana by the Soninke and Dyula in the 15th century. There are four primary branches of Islam in the country: the largest group are Sunnis of the traditional Maliki school, followed by the Ahmadiyya Ghana has the largest percentage of Ahmadis by single country in the world , and then by the Sufi Tijani-brotherhood, who are also Sunni Malikis, and a small number of Shia in urban areas in the south.

Ghana has a unique syncretistic faith, Zetahil, which combines elements of Christianity and Islam. Traditional religion is practiced by 8. There are also syncretistic groups which combine elements of Christianity or Islam with traditional beliefs.

As of there were about 10, African Hindus in Ghana. Hinduism is the fastest growing religion followed by Buddhism. Ghana is an ethnically diverse country that is predominantly influenced by the ancient Kingdoms of the Akan. Ghanaian culture is a mixture of the cultures of its peoples, predominantly Akan, Ewe, Ga-Adangbe, and Dagomba, with the Akan being dominant. Ghana's cultural diversity is most evident in cuisine, arts, and clothing. Football is the most popular sport.

The national men's football team is known as the Black Stars, with the under team known as the Black Satellites. The country has also produced quite a few quality boxers such as Azumah Nelson a three time world champion, Nana Yaw Konadu also a three time world champion, Ike Quartey, and Joshua Clottey. Textiles are very important in Ghanaian culture.

These cloths are used to make traditional and modern attire. Different symbols and different colours mean different things. Kente is probably the most famous of all the Ghanaian cloths.

Kente is an Akan ceremonial cloth hand-woven on a horizontal treadle loom. Strips measuring about 4 inches wide are sewn together into larger pieces of cloths. Cloths come in various colours, sizes and designs and are worn during very important social and religious occasions. In a cultural context, kente is more important than just a cloth. It is a visual representation of history and also a form of written language through weaving.

The first kente weavers used raffia fibres to weave cloths that looked like kenten a basket ; and thus were referred to as kenten ntoma ; meaning basket cloth. The original Asante name of the cloth was nsaduaso or nwontoma , meaning "a cloth hand-woven on a loom"; however, "kente" is the most frequently used term today.

Variations of narrow-strip cloths similar to kente are also woven by the ethnic group Ga. It is also popular among the African diaspora. Ghana has been recognized on the international level through several artists, including the Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop and Eric Adjetey Anang who are creating the famous design coffins. The music of Ghana is diverse and varies between different ethnic groups and regions.

Ghanaian music incorporates several distinct types of musical instruments such as the talking drum ensembles, goje fiddle and koloko lute, court music, including the Akan atumpan, the Ga kpanlogo styles, and log xylophones used in asonko music. The most well known genres to have come from Ghana are Afro-jazz which was created by Ghanaian artist Kofi Ghanaba. Highlife originated in the late 19th century and early 20th century and spread throughout West Africa.

In the s a new genre of music was created by the youth incorporating the influences of Highlife Afro-reggae, dancehall and hiphop. This hybrid was called Hiplife.

Ghanaian dance is as diverse as its music. Each ethnic group has their own traditional dances and there are different dances for different occasions.

There are dances for funerals, celebrations, storytelling, praise and worship etc. The media of Ghana is one of the most free in Africa. Chapter 12 of the Constitution of Ghana guarantees freedom of the press and independence of the media, while Chapter 2 prohibits censorship. Post independence, the government and media often had a tense relationship, with private outlets closed during the military coups and strict media laws that prevent criticism of government.

The media freedoms were restored in , and after the election in of John Agyekum Kufuor the tensions between the private media and government decreased. Kufuor was a supporter of press freedom and repealed a libel law, though maintained that the media had to act responsibly. The Ghanaian media has been described as "one of the most unfettered" in Africa, operating with little restriction on private media. The private press often carries criticism of government policy.

The media were vigorous in their coverage of the Ghanaian presidential election, and the Ghanaian Journalists Association GJA praised John Atta Mills on his election, hoping to foster a good media-government relationship. Ghana has a 6-year primary education system beginning at age six, and, under the educational reforms implemented in and reformed in , they pass on to a 3-year junior high school system.

At the end of the 3rd year of junior high, there is a mandatory "Basic Education Certificate Examination". Those continuing must complete the 4 -year senior high school program which has been changed to three years and take an admission exam to enter any university or tertiary programme.

Presently, Ghana has 21, primary schools, 8, junior secondary schools, 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. Most Ghanaians have relatively easy access to primary and secondary education. These numbers can be contrasted with the single university and handful of secondary and primary schools that existed at the time of independence in All teaching is done in English, mostly by qualified Ghanaian educators.

The courses taught at the primary or basic school level include English, Ghanaian language and culture, mathematics, environmental studies, social studies and French as a third language are added, integrated or general science, pre-vocational skills and pre-technical skills, religious and moral education, and physical activities such as music, dance and physical education.

The senior high level school curriculum has core subjects and elective subjects of which students must take four the core subjects of English language, mathematics, integrated science including science, agriculture and environmental studies and social studies economics, geography, history and government.

The high school students also choose 3 elective subjects from 5 available programmes: agriculture programme, general programme arts or science option , business programme, vocational programme and technical programme. The ratio of girls to boys in the total education system is That said, some , children still remain out of school because of corruption, which has led to resource constraints in building schools, providing adequate textbooks and training new teachers.

The oldest university in Ghana, The University of Ghana, was founded in It had a total of about 29, students in Its programmes in the Arts, Humanities, Business, and the Social Sciences, as well as Medicine are the best in the country. The University has produced the bulk of lawyers and politicians in the country.

Unfortunately, the university's stiff opposition to the standard of a new senior secondary school system have seen a shift of its traditionally best students to the Kwame Nkrumah University.

Since Ghana's independence, the country has been one of the most educational in sub-Saharan Africa. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the second university to be established in Ghana, is the premier university of science and technology in Ghana and West Africa.

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Design Camp at Home. National Design Month. Double-click any word on the page to look it up in the dictionary. Giacomo Meyerbeer. Context examples Each is holding a sock worn by a young child in Ghana for one night only. AudioEnglish Definitions Just One Click Away! Click here to add the AudioEnglish.

Get unrestricted access to all the English-Learning Units! It was inhabited in precolonial times by a number of ancient kingdoms, including an inland Ashanti kingdom and various Fante states along the coast. Trade with European states flourished after contact with the Portuguese in the s, and the British established a crown colony, Gold Coast, in Ghana became independent in Accra is the capital and the largest city. Origin of ghana. Named after the Ghana Empire, in turn from a Mande language, by J.

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