TGhana lies as far north as Nigeria, with a land area of 238,537 square kilometres. The Republic of Ghana was the first of the African colonies to gain independence on March 6, 1957.

"Ghana" was originally the name of an empire that existed about 500 miles northwest of contemporary Ghana, and also like Nigeria, close to the Sahara and to Western Sudan. Although the Ghana empire disappeared in the 13th century and its connection to present day Ghana is vague, people definitely migrated into the present locale from the northwest and northeast.

People speak Mole-Dagbani languages in the north of Ghana while in the south, where Akan people such as Asante and Fante live, Kwa languages prevail, bringing the languages that are spoken in the whole of Ghana to over 100 languages. Although the Asante occupied an area of jungle forest a bit of distance from the coast, they were subjugated by the Denkyera of the south until the 18th century, when famous leaders like Osei Tutu and Opoku Ware made the Asante an independent political force. Towards the end of slave trade and the waning foreign interest in the Gold Coast, Asante would extend its sphere of control to the coast and force people like the Fante into submission to them. However, the British preferred to back up the Fante and destroy Kumasi, thereby leading to a period of economic wealth on the coast.

Ghana's first contact with Europeans was with Portuguese explorers in search of spices, ivory, and gold in 1471. Ghana was then known as the Gold Coast because the Portuguese acquired gold beyond their imagination in this area. It was at independence that the name of the area became Ghana, the name of the empire that had existed 500 miles northwest of its present location.

Kwame Nkrumah the great activist in the African cause, was born in Ghana in 1909. He studied in Lincoln University of Pennsylvania in 1935 and organized the 5th Pan African Congress in England in 1945. Although in 1950 he was arrested on his return to Ghana for his political activities, he would become the first president of the Republic of Ghana seven years later in 1957. However, he was overthrown by the Ghanaian army while on a trip outside Ghana in 1966.

Today, the population of Ghana is around 18 million, with 25% of the population estimated to be Protestants, 18% Roman Catholics, 16% members of indigenous Christian churches, and 15% Muslims, and 26% practicing traditional religion.