It lies adjacent to the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing a border with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and Togo in the east.

[22] The government of the Ashanti Empire operated first as a loose network and eventually as a centralised kingdom with a specialised bureaucracy centred in the capital city of Kumasi.

Their dispersal from Nortsie was necessitated by the high-handed rule of King Agorkorli (Agɔ Akɔli) who was the reigning monarch of the tribe at that time.

[26] The Portuguese built a trading lodge at a coastal settlement called Anomansah (the perpetual drink), which they renamed São Jorge da Mina.

[28][35] Kwame Nkrumah, a Ghanaian nationalist who led Ghana from 1957 to 1966 as the country's first prime minister and president, formed the Convention People's Party in 1949 with the motto "self-government now".

The current flag of Ghana, consisting of the colours red, gold, green, and a black star, dates back to this unification.

[47][48] A series of alternating military and civilian governments, often affected by economic instabilities,[49] ruled Ghana from 1966, ending with the ascent to power of Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings of the Provisional National Defence Council in 1981.

[52] Nana Akufo-Addo, the ruling party candidate, was defeated in a very close 2008 general election by John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress.

Ghana is a unitary presidential constitutional democracy with a parliamentary multi-party system that is dominated by two parties—the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Ghana favours international and regional political and economic co-operation, and is an active member of the United Nations and the African Union.

Mills and China's former President Hu Jintao marked the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two nations, at the Great Hall of the People.

However, concerns regarding the sustainability of Chinese-financed projects, environmental impacts, and the lack of transparency in their investments call for a careful assessment of these collaborations.

[85] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with Mahama in 2013 to hold discussions on strengthening the Non-Aligned Movement and also co–chair a bilateral meeting between Ghana and Iran at the Ghanaian presidential palace Flagstaff House.

[93] In 1957, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) consisted of its headquarters, support services, three battalions of infantry and a reconnaissance squadron with armoured vehicles.

[18] In his book Shake Hands with the Devil, Canadian Forces commander Roméo Dallaire highly rated the GAF soldiers and military personnel.

[104] Ghana retains and exercises the death penalty for treason, corruption, robbery, piracy, drug trafficking, rape, and homicide.

[108][110] Underdeveloped institutions, porous open borders, and the existence of established smuggling organisations contribute to Ghana's position in the narcotics industry.

[117] Urban areas hold greater opportunity for employment, particularly in informal trade, while nearly all (94 percent) of "rural poor households" participate in the agricultural sector.

The country will use the proceeds to forge ahead with a free secondary-school initiative started in 2017 among other programs, despite having recorded its lowest economic growth rate in 37 years in 2020.

[168] With recent legal immigration of skilled workers who possess Ghana Cards, there is a small population of Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, Middle Eastern and European nationals.

[217] At the higher education level, the government funds more than 80% of resources provided to public universities, polytechnics and teacher training colleges.

[219] Banku (akple) is a common starchy food made from ground corn (maize),[219] and cornmeal based staples kɔmi (kenkey) and banku (akple) are usually accompanied by some form of fried fish (chinam) or grilled tilapia and a very spicy condiment made from raw red and green chillies, onions and tomatoes (pepper sauce).

[221][222][223] The current literary community continues with a diverse network of voices both within and outside the country, including in film, theatre, and modern digital formats such as blogging.

[222][223] The most prominent authors are novelists J. E. Casely Hayford, Ayi Kwei Armah, and Nii Ayikwei Parkes, who gained international acclaim with the books Ethiopia Unbound (1911), The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) and Tail of the Blue Bird (2009), respectively.

[224] In addition to novels, other literary arts and genres such as theatre and poetry have also had a very good development and support at the national level with prominent playwrights, poets and historians Joe de Graft and Efua Sutherland.

Each of the motifs that make up the corpus of adinkra symbolism has a name and meaning derived from a proverb, a historical event, human attitude, ethology, plant life-form, or shapes of inanimate and man-made objects.

[227] The Adinkra symbols have a decorative function as tattoos but also represent objects that encapsulate evocative messages that convey traditional wisdom, aspects of life, or the environment.

In the words of Anthony Appiah, they were one of the means in a pre-literate society for "supporting the transmission of a complex and nuanced body of practice and belief".

It is believed that in the late 19th century, Dutch ships on their way to Asia stocked with machine-made textiles that mimicked Indonesian batik stopped at many West African ports on the way.

However, in West Africa—mainly Ghana where there was an already established market for cloths and textiles—the client base grew and it was changed to include local and traditional designs, colours and patterns to cater to the taste of the new consumers.