i Parkia biglobosa - School of Forest Resources & Environmental ...

shipped from West Africa to the Americas. At the peak of the slave trade, 5000 slaves a
year were shipped from the Gold Coast alone (Library of Congress 2002).
In the seventeenth century, Christian missionaries arrived. The missionaries
brought European religion, agricultural innovation, and education, though primarily to
the southern part of Ghana. This access to education and advantages near the coast
contributed to the present day disparity between the northern and southern regions of the
country. By the nineteenth century, Britain was the most important European power in
the Gold Coast and in 1876 established the Gold Coast Colony (Naylor 2000).
Political History
In 1947, the ‘Big Six’ founded the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). The
founders, popularly known as ‘the Big Six’, were: Dr. J.B. Danquah, Mr. Obetsibi-
Lamptey, Edward Akuffo-Addo, Ako Adjei, William Ofori Atta, and Dr. Kwame
Nkrumah. The goal of the UGCC was self-government. In 1956, Prime Minister
Nkrumah and the UGCC passed a motion calling for independence that was approved by
the British Parliament. The Gold Coast Colony was renamed the Republic of Ghana
when it gained its independence on March 6, 1957, the first independent nation in sub-
Saharan Africa.
In 1966, a military coup usurped Nkrumah from his seat and Ghana was under
military rule until 1977. During this time, world oil prices soared, cocoa prices fell and
Ghana’s economy was suffering 300 percent inflation. In 1979, Lieutenant J.J. Rawlings,
representing the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), declared a revolution and
executed heads and associates of the previous military government. Rawlings formed a
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