The Gold Coast was a British Crown colony on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa from 1821 until its independence in 1957 as Ghana. The term Gold Coast is also often used to describe all of the four separate jurisdictions that were under the administration of the Governor of the Gold Coast. These were the Gold Coast itself, Ashanti, the Northern Territories protectorate and the British Togoland trust territory.
Elmina Castle was erected by the Portuguese in 1482 as Castelo de São Jorge da Mina, also known as Castelo da Mina or simply Mina, in present-day Elmina, Ghana, formerly the Gold Coast. It was the first trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea, and is the oldest extant European building south of the Sahara.
Cape Coast Castle is one of about forty "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa by European traders. It was originally a Portuguese "feitoria" or trading post, established in 1555, which was named Cabo Corso.
Elmina is a town and the capital of the Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem District on the south coast of Ghana in the Central Region. It is situated on a bay on the Atlantic Ocean, 12.2 km (7.6 mi) west of Cape Coast. Elmina was the first European settlement in West Africa and it has a population of 33,576 people, as of 2013. The current Municipality chief of Elmina is Solomon Ebo Appiah.
The National Museum, also known as the National Museum of Ghana, is a museum located in Accra, Ghana. Established in 1957, it is the largest and oldest of the six museums under the administration of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB). The museum closed in 2015 for restoration until eventually reopening in 2022.
The Portuguese Gold Coast was a Portuguese colony on the West African Gold Coast along the Gulf of Guinea.
Articles related to Ghana include:
The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and Mausoleum is located in downtown Accra, the capital of Ghana. Over the years, the park has attracted visitors from around the world, with an annual count of approximately 98,000 individuals who visit to pay homage to Ghana's first President, and learn about his life and legacy. As one of the top 10 most visited sites in the country, the park holds immense cultural and historical significance.
The West African Youth League (WAYL) was a political organisation founded by Bankole Awoonor-Renner, Ellis Brown, I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson and Robert Ben Wuta-Ofei in the Gold Coast in 1934. The group was a major political force against the colonial government in West Africa, especially in the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone. Awoonor-Renner was elected as the first President of the WAYL. Branches of the WAYL were organised in several towns and cities across the Gold Coast including Accra, Akuse, Axim, Cape Coast, Elmina,Salt Pond, Sekondi and Takoradi.
Fort Coenraadsburg or Conraadsburg, also Fort São Tiago da Mina, is a small Portuguese chapel built in honor of Saint Jago and it is situated opposite the Elmina Castle in the Central region of Ghana, to protect Fort Elmina from attacks. Owing to its historical importance and testimony to the Atlantic slave trade, Fort Conraadsburg was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 along with several other castles in Ghana.
Fort Saint Anthony was a fort built by the Portuguese in 1515 near the town of Axim, in what is now Ghana. In 1642, the Dutch captured the fort and subsequently made it part of the Dutch Gold Coast. The Dutch expanded the fort considerably before they turned it over, with the rest of their colony, to the British in 1872. The fort is now the property of the Ghanaian state and is open to the public.
Ussher Fort is a fort in Accra, Ghana. It was built by the Dutch in 1649 as Fort Crèvecœur, and is two days' march from Elmina and to the east of Accra on a rocky point between two lagoons. It was one of three forts that Europeans built in the region during the middle of the 17th century. Fort Crèvecœur was part of the Dutch Gold Coast. The Anglo-Dutch Gold Coast Treaty (1867), which defined areas of influence on the Gold Coast, transferred it to the British in 1868. Because of its significance in the history of European colonial trade and exploitation in Africa, the fort was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.
Fort Orange was built as a trading post on the Dutch Gold Coast in 1642, near Sekondi in the Western Region of Ghana. It functioned as a lodge for a while during the 1670s and that was the original purpose for the fort before it was used as a trading post. The trading post was enlarged into a fort in 1690. It was joined by an English Fort Sekondi in 1682. It was sold with the rest of the Dutch Gold Coast to the United Kingdom in 1872, and now serves as a lighthouse. Because of its historical importance in trade between Europe and Africa, Fort Orange was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 along with several other castles and forts in Ghana.
The Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture (MoTAC) Ghana is the government ministry responsible for the development and promotion of tourism-related activities in the country.
The Armed Forces Museum, also known as the Kumasi Fort, is a military history museum located in Kumasi, Ghana. It was established in 1953.
The Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) is the government organisation responsible for the preservation of the material cultural heritage of Ghana. It was founded on 5 March 1957, soon after Ghana became independent, by a merger of the National Museum and the Monuments and Relics Commission by Ordinance 20.
Tourism in Ghana is regulated by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture. This ministry is responsible for the development and promotion of tourism related activities in Ghana.
Gold Coast Euro-Africans were a historical demographic based in coastal urban settlements in colonial Ghana, that arose from unions between European men and African women from the late 15th century – the decade between 1471 and 1482, until the mid-20th century, circa 1957, when Ghana attained its independence. In this period, different geographic areas of the Gold Coast were politically controlled at various times by the Portuguese, Germans, Swedes, Danes, Dutch and the British. There are also records of merchants of other European nationalities such as the Spaniards, French, Italians and Irish, operating along the coast, in addition to American sailors and traders from New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Euro-Africans were influential in intellectual, technocratic, artisanal, commercial and public life in general, actively participating in multiple fields of scholarly and civic importance. Scholars have referred to this Euro-African population of the Gold Coast as "mulattos", "mulatofoi" and "owulai" among other descriptions. The term, owula conveys contemporary notions of "gentlemanliness, learning and urbanity" or "a salaried big man" in the Ga language. The cross-cultural interactions between Europeans and Africans were mercantile-driven and an avenue to boost social capital for economic and political gain i.e. "wealth and power". The growth and development of Christianity during the colonial period also instituted motifs of modernity vis-à-vis Euro-African identity. This model created a spectrum of practices, ranging from a full celebration of native African customs to a total embrace and acculturation of European culture.
The architecture of Ghana is influenced by a variety of historical, cultural, and environmental factors. Its architectural heritage consists of traditional architectural styles, monumental and symbolic architecture, and historic buildings and neighbourhoods. Architecture found across the country can be classified into indigenous architecture of the various ethnic groups, architecture of the colonial era, the tropical modernist style of the independence era, and architecture in contemporary times.
