[36] The Republic of Ghana was the first African country to gain independence from European colonial rule.

[37][38] More than 90% of the Ghanaian citizens in Ghana live in urban areas—a figure higher than the world average.

Ghanaians have high level of education in science, technology, mathematics and vocational studies.

[citation needed] To obtain Ghanaian nationality, one must be naturalized after seven years of Ghana Card permanent residency.

[45] During the colonial era, a number of Europeans intermarried with Africans and had offspring, who include such notable Gold Coasters as Carel Hendrik Bartels and James Bannerman.

Currently, the most significant immigrant populations in Ghana are Africans from other countries on the continent, Asians (Indians and Chinese), some of them Europeans (Britons, Portuguese, Dutch, French, Italians, Latin Americans, Poles, Scandinavians, and Germans), and Middle Easterners, particularly Lebanese and Syrians.

[46] The Fifth Pan-African Congress held in October 1945, served to form the support for the liberalization of Ghanaian colonial domination on 4 August 1947.

They were shipped as imported labourers slaves from the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana) to Suriname about 300 years ago to work on Dutch-owned plantations.

Ghana's cultural diversity is most evident in cuisine, arts, literature, heritage, music, dance, clothing, and sports.

Kente is hand-woven on a horizontal treadle loom in strips measuring about 4 inches wide, which are sewn together into larger pieces of cloth.

Cloths come in various colours, sizes and designs, which have different meanings, and are worn on important social occasions.

Notable Ghanaian authors include novelists Ayi Kwei Armah (The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born), Ama Ata Aidoo (Our Sister Killjoy: or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint) and J. E. Casely Hayford, author of Osiris Rising.

In addition to novels, other literary genres such as theatre and poetry have been well developed at a national level.

In the 1990s, a new genre of music, hiplife, was created through the combination of highlife, Afro-reggae, dancehall and hip hop.

[57] The dances are varied and may involve complex and co-ordinated movement of the arms, torso, hips, feet and head, performed to different Ghanaian music forms for entertainment, celebrating at festivals, and other occasions.

[63] Among matrilineal groups, such as the Akan, married women continued to reside at their maternal homes.

[63] The separate living patterns reinforced the idea that each spouse is subject to the authority of a different household head, and because spouses are always members of different lineages, each is ultimately subject to the authority of the senior men of his or her lineage.

[66] Men are offered a much wider range of apprenticeships, such as carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, mechanics, painters, repairers of electrical and electronic appliances, upholsters, metal workers, car sprayers, etc.

[63] When women were employed in the same line of work as men, they were paid equal wages, and they were granted maternity leave with pay.

[67] Feminist organizing has increased in Ghana as women seek to obtain a stronger role in the nation's democratic government.

[63] Among these considerations the NCWD stressed family planning, child care, and female education as paramount.

On 31 December 1981, the regime led by Flight lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings installed the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), of which he became chairman.

In 1992, Rawlings retired from the military and set up the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and was subsequently elected for two terms as president.

In 2002, John Agyekum Kufuor succeeded Rawlings as Ghanaian head of state until the year 2008.