WHEN GHANA ACHIEVED INDEPENDENCE from colonial

domination in 1957, the first country in sub-Saharan Mrica to

do so, it enjoyed economic and political advantages unrivaled

elsewhere in tropical Mrica. The economy was solidly based on

the production and export of cocoa, of which Ghana was the

world's leading producer; minerals, particularly gold; and tim-

ber. It had a well-developed transportation network, relatively

high per capita income, low national debt, and sizable foreign

currency reserves. Its education system was relatively advanced,

and its people were heirs to a tradition of parliamentary gov-

ernment. Ghana's future looked promising, and it seemed des-

tined to be a leader in Mrica.

Yet during the next twenty-five years, rather than growth and

prosperity, Ghanaians experienced substantial declines in all of

the above categories, and the country's image became severely

tarnished. Beginning in the early 1980s and continuing into

the mid-1990s, efforts were undertaken to rebuild the govern-

ment and the economy and to restore the luster of Ghana's

name. It is this attempt at reconstruction that constitutes the

major focus of the present volume.

The region of modern Ghana has been inhabited for several

thousand years, but little is known of Ghana's early inhabitants

before the sixteenth century. By then, however, the major pop-

ulation groups were on the scene and in their present locales.

More than 100 separate ethnic groups are found in Ghana

today, a number of which are immigrant groups from neigh-

boring countries.

One of the most important is the Akan, who live in the

coastal savannah and forest zones of southern Ghana. The

Akan were living in well-defined states by the early sixteenth

century at the latest. By the end of that century, the states of

Mamprusi, Dagomba, and Gonja had come into being among

the Mole-Dagbane peoples of northern Ghana. These peoples

and states were significantly influenced by Mande-speaking

peoples from the north and the northeast. In the extreme

north of present-day Ghana are a number of peoples who did

not form states in pre-colonial times. These peoples, such as

the Sisala, Kasena, and Talensi, are organized into clans and
look to the heads of their clans for leadership. Like the Mole