WITH much fanfare Ghana gained its independence in 1957. It was an auspicious achievement pioneering a prolonged independence movement across sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. Created from the merger of the 113-year-old British colony of the Gold Coast and the Togoland Trust territory established from the previous German West African empire in1918, Ghana at its birth had much in its favour. Under its new intellectual leader, Dr Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), it was expected to be not only the gateway to a new Africa, but also the showpiece of the continent. Today the 24 million Ghanaians ponder how that bright promise ended up with the present reality.

With a geographical size roughly equivalent to Guyana or the British Isles (or to use more local references, more than twice the size of Cuba and almost 25 times the size of Jamaica), Ghana has considerable natural resources. Gold has been bountiful for millennia, giving the original colony its name. Palm oil and cocoa have been major exports for more than 100 years. Extensive forests provide excellent hardwood. The country has quantities of industrial diamonds, silver, limestone, manganese, and bauxite. At independence Ghana’s reserves were more than 14 times its exports. Oil has been exploited for some time and recently a large petroleum deposit was discovered off the western coast inducing Ghanaians to become optimistic about their homeland again.

Ghana itself is an interesting collection of ethnicities and languages, and in many respects may be considered a microcosm of the diversity of sub-Saharan Africa. Six major ethnic groups speak about 79 different languages, many of which are mutually intelligible. The dominant groups, comprising about 45 per cent of the nation, are the Akan who are found largely south of the Volta River. The Mole-Daghbani to the north of the Volta form about 15 per cent of the population. The Ewe to the east of the Volta is 13 per cent. The Ga-Adanbe found around Accra, the capital city, amount to 9 per cent with the Guma and the Grusi to the north accounting for about 6 per cent. The major language groups are the Ashante, Ewe, Fante, and Twi. Most Ghanaians speak several of the local languages as well as a beautifully modulated Standard English.

Ghana is closer to the equator than Jamaica so the intense heat and humidity are omnipresent. The dry season is hotter and the rainy season more intense than in Jamaica. The ubiquitous presence — even within the limits of the larger cities — of citrus, banana, sugarcane, mango, royal palms and majestic clumps of multicoloured bougainvillea is quintessentially tropical. Ackee trees are everywhere although treated as ornamentals rather than fruit trees. Churches abound everywhere, a reminder that almost 70 per cent of Ghanaians are Christians. Charismatic Pentecostals, Methodists, Presbyterians and Catholics dominate in the south, while Muslims predominate in the north. Although Marcus Garvey never made it to Africa, his Black Star is found everywhere: on the national flag of Ghana, the symbol of the national soccer team, and the name of the best-selling beer. There is a certain poetic justice to this. Ghana provided many of the early slaves who established sugar plantations in Jamaica and elsewhere in the British Caribbean. Today colourful fishing boats have replaced the former slave ships at Elmina and Cape Coast.

The Ghanaian population is colourfully well dressed and unusually polite. Adults are respected by younger people and familiar and polite forms of address are standard. People address one another with titles of “Mr”, “Miss”, or “Madam”, even in casual conversation. Education is taken seriously, although female education at all levels lags far behind that of males.

Ghanaians, like most of the rest of the world, sensibly drive on the right. At least that is the official position. Ghana’s roads, even the toll roads, are atrocious. Navigating the hazardous potholes and unpaved major roads is definitely not for the faint of heart. Even in the major cities driving is mainly an off-road exercise. Not surprisingly, automobile graveyards abound, some with fairly recent models.

The promising history and considerable natural resources contrast sharply with the reality of life in Ghana. It is a largely agricultural country. Six in 10 Ghanaians depend on farming, and agriculture contributes as much to the GDP as services and well above industry. While the residential and commercial architecture might seem familiar, the abundance of substandard housing across the country is shocking. Even with the impressive improvement in poverty elimination since 2000, about 30 per cent of Ghanaians still live below the international poverty line of one dollar per day. Nearly 84 per cent of the rural population has no potable water and more than four million homes have no bathrooms. The teeming major cities such as Accra, Kumasi or Cape Coast lack garbage disposal and effective sewer systems. Indeed, poor sanitation contributes to an appallingly high infant and maternal mortality levels. Major diseases such as endemic malaria, cholera, diarrhoea, tuberculosis, meningitis, typhoid, leprosy and Guinea worm all coincide to reduce the life expectancy in Ghana to 60 years for women and 58 for men – far below Caribbean data, except for Haiti.

There are many inadequate explanations for Ghana’s present situation – political corruption and administrative inefficiency as narrated by Ayi Kwei Armah in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born; the curse of Africa; and foreign exploitation. Fifty-two years is a short time in the history of any country and Ghana may yet save itself.