Name: 地理の今!ガーナ (Geography Now! Ghana)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T10:29:04.000Z
Duration: 12 min 53 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

Hey Barbs, I'm thinking about going to Africa. Where do you think I should go?

Oh, I think you're...GHANA...like my answer...

Nah you wouldn't last three days in there. Go to Ghana.

Hey everybody, I'm your host Barby. Ghana is kind of like "Africa for beginners".

People usually come here to test out their "Sub-Saharan excursion skills"

before taking off their training wheels and venturing deep into the interior savannas and jungles.

So if that's you, your first assignment is to report to Accra and Kumasi at 0700 hours. MOVE OUT SOLIDER!

Fun side note: The word Ghana means "Warrior king", hearkening back to the Ghana Empire in the 4th Century A.D....

...which actually wasn't even located in Ghana.

Anyway, Ghana is a country about the size of Romania located in West Africa along the Guinea Gulf

bordered by the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Togo.

Ghana is also one of the only eight countries that passes through the Prime Meridian as well as Antarctica in the south.

The country is made up of 10 regions with some interesting sounding capitals like Wa, Ho and Tamale

and of course the capital Accra (pronounced: Ah-Cra)

located in the south-east along the coast.

The two largest airports are of course the capital, Accra Kotoka International, and the second largest one, Kumasi International, located further inland.

NOAH: The colonial regions are cool and all, but tell then about the tribal and ethnic regions.

BARBY: You know what Noah, I think I'll give you this one because you're the guy with the better voice.

The north is primarily inhabited by the Mole-Dagbani peoples. The north-central area has the Guan group.

The south-east, including the capital Accra is dominated by the Ewe and Ga-Adangme people.

Then you get this huge chunk of the west, center and south areas where you can find the famous Akan and Ashanti peoples.

Sometimes, this area is collectively referred to as Ashantiland.

BARBY: ...a little too good. I don't want the audience liking you more than me. Get out!

Now, Ghana is a constitutional republic, but nonetheless still kind of technically has a king, or disputably "regional kings"

that act more like cultural figureheads rather than governmentally sanctioned legislators.

However, these kings still do hold high positions of influence in society.

Nonetheless, the most notable and powerful of all these kings would probably be the monarch

He lives in the Manhyia Palace in the Ashanti capital, Kumasi.

Otherwise, other notable landmarks in Ghana might include:

the oldest European building in Sub-Saharan Africa built in 1482.

each one has a dark history of being used for importing slaves.

with the bronze statue of Dr. Kwame Nkruman (not to be confused with the vandalised statue of him during the coup d'état years)

the world's largest digital waste dump where criminals try to hack into confidential governmental computers.

Oh and the Kejetia market, the largest in Africa located in Kumasi in Ashantiland.

And those are just the man-made landmarks, let's see what mother nature brings to the table.

Now when it comes to the land, Ghana kind of like accidently broke a world record.

I'm talking about Lake Volta. The world's largest man-made lake fed by the Black, White and Red Volta rivers.

If you look at the map, this massive 400km long body of water that scars the south-east side of Ghana, taking up about 4% of the land is actually

a reservoir by-product created after the construction of one little guy:

Granted, thousands of people and animals were displaced in the process of the flooding of the basin, BUT...

...this one little dam produces much of the electricity for the entire country with leftover to export to neighbouring countries for external revenue.

NOAH: So your home will be underwater for a couple of months. GET OUT!

Now the country is divided into four geographic terrestrial plains:

Basically, the south is wetter and the north is drier. Sometimes even subject to those "Harmattan" winds.

With a more sparsely populated area, the north is home to open savannas and the largest nature reserve, Mole National Park...

...where you can see animals like Elephants, Hippos, Baboons, Crocodiles and the national animal the Golden Eagle.

Man. Mole, Tamale, all these Spanish words. I'm surprised the Spanish had nothing to do with Ghana.

BARBY: No, they actually, literally, didn't. Like almost every European country (even Sweden) got in on it.

NOAH: You know, I think they're actually pretty okay. They have their whole side-investment going on anyway. Right?

Ghana is also the second largest cocoa producer, after the Ivory Coast.

Cadbury, the company that makes those diabetically amazing easter eggs actually imports 90% of their cocoa from Ghana.

And is actually second in Africa in gold production, after South Africa.

Gold plays a HUGE role in Ghana. In fact, the British touted the area as the "Gold Coast" during colonial times due to the high amount of gold reserves found throughout the country...

This is why you shouldn't be surprised to find more golden material in Kumasi and the surrounding areas.

Of course, agriculture wise, typical African cash crops and staples like cassava, yams, cotton, rubber, sugar and palm oil are produced along with kenaf...

You can the fibers in rope, twine, crude cloth, paper, bags. You can even feed it to your animals and use it as their bedding.

It's kind of like jute. Remember the Bangladesh episode? (Man, today is just like a reference overload)

Of course the staple dish, made out of cassava and plantain flour is called Fufu. A starchy substance typically eaten with stews and meats.

Just a little side note: Fufu, which goes by many other different names in Africa like

is kind of like the staple for many Sub-Saharan African countries.

It's like what rice is to Asians and bread is to Europeans.

Famous national dishes include things like:

and be careful when mentioning Jollof rice. (Make sure there are no Nigerians around)

The interesting thing though is that, although historically, Ghana was dominated an agrarian and mineral extraction based economy,...

...they really branched out and diversified their business portfolio.

In 2011, they gained the title of the world's "fastest growing economy."

Now Ghana focuses on things like the manufacturing industry, electronics, technology, and recently after an oil reserve was discovered in 2007...

...the hydrocarbon export sector as well, which supplies over $1.5 billion extra in state revenue.

This is partially why Ghana was one of the lowest unemployment rates in all of Africa, at around only 6-8% annually.

They're even slated to join the list of automobile manufacturing countries as well as they just launched their own domestic brand,

Otherwise, other amazing natural zones would include places like:

where you can sit on lazy crocodiles that just don't care.

and when in doubt, just take a little cruise on Lake Volta. Maybe go fishing in it for a little bit.

And it's probably best to have a local show you these areas because you know, locals are the best, aren't they?

Now, Ghana is not only like Africa's "training wheels" but also like Africa's first main Sub-Saharan contact to Europe.

And yes, the Saharan and Sahel west coast areas like Senegal and the Gambia had already been discovered...

...but essentially,  it wasn't until the Portuguese explorer Fernão Gomes came in the 15th century established the Elmina settlement.

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地理の今!ガーナ (Geography Now! Ghana)

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