Ghana

presidential representative democratic republic

Kotoka International Airport (DGAA/ACC), Tamale Airport (DGLE/TML), Kumasi Airport (DGSI/KMS)

Kwame Nkrumah was an African anti-colonial leader, founder and first president of the modern Ghanaian state. He started the Pan-African Movement, which was an idea he conceived from his studies in the States, at the time when Marcus Garvey was becoming famous for his "Back to Africa Movement". Formed from the merger of the British colony Gold Coast and the British Togoland trust territory by a U.N. sponsored plebiscite, Ghana in 1957 became the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence. A long series of coups ended with the ascension to power of Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings in 1981. His changes resulted in the suspension of the constitution in 1981 and the banning of political parties. A new constitution, restoring multiparty politics, was approved in 1992, and Rawlings was elected in free elections of that year and also in 1996. The constitution prohibited him from running for a third term. John Kufuor, the current president, is now in his second term.