The 9th-century Berber historian/geographer Al Yaqubi described ancient Ghana as one of the three most organized states in the region (the others being Gao and Kanem in the central Sudan). Its rulers were renowned for their wealth in gold, the opulence of their courts, and their warrior/hunting skills....Ghana is today's "History of" country.
Ghana succumbed to attacks by its neighbors in the 11th century, but its name and reputation endured. In 1957, when the leaders of the former British colony of the Gold Coast sought an appropriate name for their newly independent state — the first black African nation to gain its independence from colonial rule — they named their new country after ancient Ghana. The choice was more than merely symbolic, because modern Ghana, like its namesake, was equally famed for its wealth and trade in gold.
March 31, 2013
"Strictly speaking, ghana was the title of the king..."
"... but the Arabs, who left records of the kingdom, applied the term to the king, the capital, and the state."
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6 comments:
I can see why they wouldn't want to call it Slave Coast, but Ashanti's pretty cool.
Much better than Ghana.
PS Thanks for this article, Madame. I've been meaning to look up the Triangule Trade for a day or so, but the Alzheimer's has been kicking in.
Being close to the Equator, with a highest elevation of less than 3,000 feet, there has never been any snow in Ghana.
Peter
I went there in 2008 for three weeks. All the way from Accra to Tamale, to Deboya. The people are very nice but quite poor. The government is heavily influenced by the British and they have a fairly professional military. I enjoyed my stay but have no interest in returning.
It's nice to see they are reaching out. I get hits from 4-5 women a day wanting to be my soulmate, not to mention government functionaries wanting do give me a few million bucks. Generous people.
"Generous people."
www.africafornorway.no
Very politically correct wiki article, but somehow, Ghana attracts that sort of prim-and-proper PC leftist schoolmarmery. Kwame Nkrumah was your classic Marx-addled postcolonial trainwreck. As a result, what was a model colony, prosperous and well-educated by the standards of the day, has slumped into an impoverished, socialized mess which is a paragon only in comparison to its disorderly and tumultuous West African neighbors, some of which are nothing short of imploded shells of their former selves.
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