Research Guides: International Coffeehouses: Ghana

Facts in Brief

Capital: Accra

Official Language: English

Ghana's flag as a black star in the center symbolizing African freedom.

Money: basic unit - cedi

Form of government: Constitutional democracy

Climate: Hot and humid and heavy rains in the southwest. Long dry periods in the north and east from November to March.

Image Citation: Country Flag (Ghana), in Europa World online. London, Routledge. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Retrieved 15 February 2021 from http://www.europaworld.com/entry/gh.FLAG

Text Citation: McDade, B. E. (2021). Ghana. In World Book Advanced. Retrieved from https://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar223060

Amon Kotei

Nii Amon Kotei

Sculptor, painter, musician, and surveyor.
Designed Ghana's coat of arms.

(2020). Amon Kotei designer of the Ghanaian Coat of Arms [digital image]. Retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Moments in Hell, 1980

Kotei, Amon. 1960. Moments in Hell. https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTSTOR_103_41822001578283.

Adel with Red Scarf, 1960

Kotei, Amon. 1960. Adel with Red Scarf. https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTSTOR_103_41822001578291.

Books from Our Collection

Culture and Customs of Ghana by Steven J. Salm; Toyin Falola The decades of independence in Ghana have strengthened the idea of a national Ghanaian culture. The culture and customs of Ghana today are a product of diversity in traditional forms, influenced by a long history of Islamic and European contact. Culture and Customs of Ghana is the first book to concisely provide an up-to-date narrative on the most significant elements of the established cultural life and institutions as well as the most recent changes in the cultural landscape. Written expressly for students and the general reader, it belongs in every library supporting multicultural and African studies curricula. Ghana seeks to cultivate the philosophy of the African personality, to revive, maintain, and promote Ghanaian ways of life and integrate them into political and social institutions. Ghanaians also recognize their relationship to the rest of the world and continue to develop with the forces of globalization. Culture and Customs of Ghana authoritatively discusses the vibrant and adaptable people, from their religions to music and dance. A chronology, glossary, and numerous photos complement the text.
Call Number: E-Book/Online Access
Ghana by Patricia Levy; Winnie Wong This book provides comprehensive information on the geography, history, wildlife, governmental structure, economy, cultural diversity, peoples, religion, and culture of Ghana. All books of the critically-acclaimed Cultures of the World® series ensure an immersive experience by offering vibrant photographs with descriptive nonfiction narratives, and interactive activities such as creating an authentic traditional dish from an easy-to-follow recipe. Copious maps and detailed timelines present the past and present of the country, while exploration of the art and architecture help your readers to understand why diversity is the spice of Life.
Call Number: DT510.L48 2010
Historical Dictionary of Ghana by David Owusu-Ansah Ghana, the former British colony of the Gold Coast, is historically known for being the first country to the south of the Sahara to attain political independence from colonial rule. It is known for its exports of cocoa and a variety of minerals, especially gold, and it is now an oil exporting country. But Ghana's importance to the African continent is not only seen in its natural resources or its potential to expand its agricultural output. Rather the nation's political history of nationalism, the history of military engagement in politics, record of economic depression and the ability to rise from the ashes of political and economic decay is the most unique character of the country. This fourth edition of Historical Dictionary of Ghana covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 900 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Ghana.
Call Number: E-book/Online Access
The History of Ghana by Roger S. Gocking Gocking provides a historical overview of Ghana from the emergence of precolonial states through increasing contact with Europeans that led to the establishment of formal colonial rule by Great Britian at the end of the 19th century. Colonial rule transformed what was known as the Gold Coast economically, socially, and politically, but it contained the seeds of its own demise. After World War II an increasingly more effective nationalist movement challenged British rule, and in 1957 Ghana became independent. Independence brought its own challenges the most important of which was the inability to maintain political stability. Within the space of 24 years there were four military coups and the collapse of three republics. Ghana's Fourth Republic, established in 1993, has dealt with the legacy of instability inherited from the past as it moves towards a more stable future. A timeline, photographs, maps, and an appendix of biographies of notable figures in the history of Ghana are included. Students and adults alike will find this book to be highly effective in describing the often turbulent and tumultuous history of this country.
Call Number: DT510.5.G63 2005

Images from Artstor

Map of Ghana

Country Map (Ghana), in Europa World online. London, Routledge. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Retrieved 15 February 2021 from http://www.europaworld.com/entry/gh.MAP

Listen! Streaming Audio Resources.

Music Books in Our Collection

Highlife Saturday Night by Nathan Plageman Highlife Saturday Night captures the vibrancy of Saturday nights in Ghana--when musicians took to the stage and dancers took to the floor--in this penetrating look at musical leisure during a time of social, political, and cultural change. Framing dance band "highlife" music as a central medium through which Ghanaians negotiated gendered and generational social relations, Nate Plageman shows how popular music was central to the rhythm of daily life in a West African nation. He traces the history of highlife in urban Ghana during much of the 20th century and documents a range of figures that fueled the music's emergence, evolution, and explosive popularity. This book is generously enhanced by audiovisual material on the Ethnomusicology Multimedia website.
Call Number: E-book/Online Access
Female Highlife Performers in Ghana by Nana Abena Amoah-Ramey; A. B. Assensoh (Foreword by) This book offers a detailed analysis of the history of female musicians in the Highlife music tradition of the Republic of Ghana, particularly the challenges and constraints these women faced and overcame. Highlife - a form of West African music infusing Ghana's traditional Akan dance rhythms and melodies with European instruments and harmonies - grew in popularity throughout the 20th century and hit its peak in the 1970s and 1980s. Although women played significant roles in the evolution and survival of the genre, few of their contributions have been thoroughly explored or documented. Despite being disregarded and ignored in many spheres, female Highlife musicians thrived and became trailblazers in the Ghanaian music industry, making particularly vibrant contributions to Highlife music in the 1970s. This book presents the voices of female Highlife artists and documents the ideological transformations expressed through their musical works, exploring the challenges they confronted throughout their musical careers and their contributions to music and culture in Ghana.
Call Number: ML3503.G4 A66 2018
The Hiplife in Ghana by Halifu Osumare The Hiplife in Ghana explores one international site - Ghana, West Africa - where hip-hop music and culture have morphed over two decades into the hiplife genre of world music. It investigates hiplife music not merely as an imitation and adaptation of hip-hop, but as a reinvention of Ghana's century-old highlife popular music tradition. Author Halifu Osumare traces the process by which local hiplife artists have evolved a five-phased indigenization process that has facilitated a youth-driven transformation of Ghanaian society. She also reveals how Ghana's social shifts, facilitated by hiplife, have occurred within the country's 'corporate recolonization,' serving as another example of the neoliberal free market agenda as a new form of colonialism. Hiplife artists, we discover, are complicit with these global socio-economic forces even as they create counter-narratives that push aesthetic limits and challenge the neoliberal order.
Call Number: ML3503.G4 O88 2012
African Music in Ghana by J. H. Kwabena Nketia
Call Number: ML3760.N6
Music and Dance Traditions of Ghana by Paschal Yao Younge The music and dance traditions of Ghana's four main ethnic groups are covered comprehensively in this book. It discusses concepts of music, dance and performance in general, and also goes into cultural perspectives, performance practices and the form and structure of 22 musical types or dance drumming ceremonies. As a guide to multicultural education, it provides teaching methods and components of curriculum development. Numerous photographs, maps, and musical scores generously illustrate the book.
Call Number: ML3760.Y68 2011

Music Databases to Explore

Music Online: Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries
This streaming audio database produced in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, is a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions.
Music Online: Contemporary World Music
Streaming audio collection of sounds from around the world. Genres include reggae, Balkanic jazz, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres such as traditional music - fado, flamenco, klezmer, gagaku, and more.

International Coffeehouses: Ghana