GOLD COAST, that portion of the Guinea Coast (West Africa) which extends from Assini upon the west to the river Volta on the east. It derives its name from the quantities of grains of gold mixed with the sand of the rivers traversing the district. The term Gold Coast is now generally identified with the British Gold Coast colony. This extends from 3o° 7' W. to I° 14' E., the length of the coast-line being about 37o miles. It is bounded west by the Ivory Coast, east by Togoland. On the north the British possessions, including Ashanti (q.v.) and the Northern Territories, extend to the 11th degree of north latitude. Their combined area is given as 78,802 sq.m., with a total popula tion, at the 1931 census, of 3,121,214. The Gold Coast colony alone has an area of 23,490 sq.m., with a population (1921 census) of ,439, including some 1,50o Europeans. For the British mandated area of Togoland, which is administered by the Gold Coast, see TOGOLAND.
Physical Features.—Though the lagoons common to the West African coast are found both at the western and eastern extremi ties of the colony (Assini in the west and Kwitta in the east) the greater part of the coast-line is of a different character. Cape Three Points 44' 40" N. 2° 5' 45" `V.) juts boldly into the sea. Thence the coast trends east by north, and is but slightly indented. The usually low, sandy beach is, however, diversified by bold, rocky headlands. The flat belt of country does not extend inland any considerable distance, the spurs of the great plateau which forms the major part of West Africa advancing in the east, in the Akwapim district, near to the coast. Here the hills reach an alti tude of over 2,000 feet. Out of the level plain rise many isolated peaks, generally of conical formation. Numerous rivers descend from the hills, but bars of sand block their mouths, and the only deep water harbour the Gold Coast possesses is that of Takoradi (q.v.), built at great expense and dating only from 1928. Great 'Goldberg is also the name of a small town in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany. Pop. (1925) 3,082.
Atlantic rollers break unceasingly upon the shore. The chief rivers are the Volta (q.v.) the Ankobra and the Prah. The Ankobra or Snake river traverses auriferous country, and reaches the sea some 20 M. W. of Cape Three Points. It has a course of about i 5o m., and is navigable in steam launches for about 8o miles. The Prah ("Busum Prah," sacred river) is regarded as a fetish stream by the Fanti and Ashanti. The Prah rises in the north-east of the colony and flows south-west. Some 6o m. from its mouth it is joined by the Ofin, which comes from the north-west. The united stream flows south and reaches the sea in I° 35' W. As a waterway the river, which has a course of 400 m., is almost useless, owing to the many cataracts in its course.
The fauna includes leopards, panthers, hyenas, Potto lemurs, jackals, antelopes, buffaloes, wild-hogs and many kinds of monkey, including the chimpanzee and the Colobus vellerosus whose skin with long, black, silky hair is much prized in Europe. Among the snakes are pythons, cobras, horned and puff adders and the veno mous water snake. Crocodiles, and, in fewer numbers, manatees and otters frequent the rivers and lagoons, and hippopotami are found in the Volta. Lizards of brilliant hue, tortoises and great snails are common. Birds, which are not very numerous, include parrots and hornbills, kingfishers, ospreys, herons, crossbills, cur lews, woodpeckers, doves, pigeons, storks, pelicans, swallows, vultures and the spur plover (the last-named rare). Shoals of herrings frequent the coast; the other fish include mackerel, sole, skate, mullet, bonito, flying fish, fighting fish and shynose. Sharks abound at the mouths of all the rivers, edible turtle are fairly common, as are the sword fish, dolphin and sting ray (with poi sonous caudal spine). Oysters are numerous on rocks running into the sea and on the exposed roots of mangrove trees. Insect life is multitudinous ; beetles, spiders, ants, fireflies, butterflies and jiggers abound. The earthworm is rare. The mosquitoes in clude the Culex or ordinary kind, the Anopheles, which carry malaria fever, and the Stegoryia, a striped white and black mosquito which carries yellow fever.
The Twi, Tshi or Chi language (the name occurs in many other forms) is that most spoken on the Gold Coast. It belongs to the great prefix-pronominal group. There are many dialects which may be seduced to two classes or types, Akan and Fanti. Ak wapin, which is based on the Akim variety of the Akan type, but exhibits Fanti influences, has been made the book-language by the Basle missionaries. They had reduced it to writing before 185o. About a million people in all, it is estimated, speak dialects of the Twi. In the south-east another language, the Ga or Accra, is spoken. It comprises the Ga proper and the Adangme and Krobo dialects. Ga proper is spoken by about 40,00o people. The Adangme and Krobo dialects are spoken by about 8o,000 people. They differ very considerably from Ga proper, but books printed in Ga can be used by both the Krobo and Adangme natives. Other tongues, less known, are Guan and the Obutu. East of the Volta are tribes speaking the Ewe group of languages.
Fetishism (q.v.) is the prevailing religion, but there are large numbers of Christians and a lesser number of converts to Islam. Belief in a God is universal, as also is a belief in a future state. A Moravian mission was started at Christiansborg about 1736; the Basle mission (Evangelical) was begun in 1828, the mission aries combining manual training and farm labour with purely religious work; the Wesleyans started a mission among the Fanti in 1835, and the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches arc also represented.
Agriculture, Mining and Trade.—Originally the chief ex ports from the coast were gold and slaves; when the slave trade was stopped palm oil and palm nuts, monkey skins, guinea grain and kola nuts took their place. To these rubber was added about 1880. In 1895 the chief exports and their value were : rubber (332,000), gold dust (L91,000), palm oil and palm kernel (308, 000), and kola nuts (L3o,000). Four years later (1899) cocoa, for the production of which the Gold Coast is now chiefly famous, figures in the exports as 714,000 lb. in weight and f i 6,000 in value, while the rubber exported, was worth £555,000; gold and gold dust had fallen to the value of f 51,000, but palm oil and kola nuts held their place. Thereafter, the rubber trade fluctuated and finally declined, chiefly because of the competition of plantation rubber from the East. Timber was added to the exports, and with the adoption of modern methods and railway facilities, the gold mining industry revived. For a time gold and cocoa became rivals as the two chief exports (cocoa, f866,000; and gold, L790, 00o in 191o) with kola nuts progressing and the palm oil exports tending to fall off. Cocoa, however, rapidly outdistanced gold, while the discovery of manganese ore in 1914 added another valuable product to the list of exports. Later (in 1919) came the discovery of diamonds and bauxite. Thus the chief exports, besides cocoa, came to be gold, manganese ore. kola nuts. lumber and diamonds, with palm oil and kernels and copra subsidiary; and much of the cocoa and most of the gold comes from Ashanti. Imports include every variety of goods, the first in value being cotton piece goods.
The cocoa industry was started by a native of Accra, who in 1879, returning from Fernando Po, brought with him a few pods, the seeds from which he planted at his home at Mampong in the Akwapim hills. The experiment was successful and a large demand for seeds arose. In 1890 a Government botanical station was established at Aburi, with the object of fostering agriculture, and the officials gave encouragement to the growers of cocoa. The first export of 8o lb. was made in 1891 and it fetched i4; in two tons of cocoa were exported. The natives, in whose hands the industry was, now became exceedingly keen on cocoa farms, the more so as they were easy to run, and large areas of forest were cleared. First in the eastern province and then in the central province and in Ashanti, farmer after farmer took up cocoa, so that by 1913 the output exceeded 50,000 tons and fetched nearly £2,500,000. In 1924-25 the output had grown to 220,000 tons (value f7,896,000). In 1920 an abnormal "boom" year, following the World War, a crop of 124,000 tons had fetched over .L0, 000,000, and the sharp fall in prices in 1921 caused a partial crisis, the farmers finding it hard to understand world economic workings. The building of roads and railways, by reducing costs- much cocoa had been planted in places where it did not pay to bring the crop to market by head loads—helped to restore normal conditions. With the aid of the Agricultural Department in see ing that farmers used the best methods, the industry was placed on a stable basis. The export of cocoa in 1926 was valued at £9,181,000. The industry was built up within a quarter of a cen tury without the use of European capital, by the natives them selves, and mainly by a large number of illiterate farmers, each working a small area.
The cultivation of cocoa led to the neglect of the oil palm in many districts, but the Volta region continued to export palm oil and kernels, while the Government sought to encourage the cultivation of other crops, notably sisal hemp—a plantation being started near Accra in citrus fruits. The cultivation of Para rubber on plantation lines was also begun. In the eastern districts the cocoanut palm is abundant, and thence came the copra exports. For home consumption Indian corn, cassava and yams are largely grown. At many of the coast towns fishing is a big industry and salted and sun-dried fish from Addah and Kwitta (Keta) find a ready sale inland. While efforts to grow cotton for export were not successful, cloths are woven by the natives, partly from home-grown but mostly from imported yarn; canoes are made from the silk cotton tree ; salt is prepared from the Addah and other lagoons. Native artificers in gold and other metals often show skill and taste ; odum wood is used for building and cabinet work. The timber exported is largely mahogany.
The gold mines, since about 1874, have been worked by Euro pean companies though it is only since 1902 that modern methods have been used. The chief mines in the colony are at Tarkwa and Prestea; the most valuable mine is at Obuasi, in Ashanti. Alluvial gold is obtained by hydraulic sluicing. For many genera tions the gold exported was dust, collected by the natives from the gravel or streams—small quantities are still obtained by African women, who use the calabash—but there is evidence that the Por tuguese in their day did some regular mining. The output of gold in 1927 was valued at £803,000. Between 1903 and 1927 the total value of gold produced was 6,148,192 oz., valued at £26,117,856. The manganese ore mined is found along the Sekondi-Kumasi railway, some 34-36 m. from Sekondi. Mining began in 1916; for the year 1926-27 over 390,00o tons of ore were railed—and the value of the total export since 1916 was about £2,500,000. The diamonds are of alluvial origin and are found chiefly in the gravel of streams in the Prah and Birim basins. Up to 1927 the value of the diamonds found, mostly stones under one carat, was over £800,000. Owing to the bauxite deposits occurring in regions distant from the railways, the mining of that metal had not begun up to 1929. The ore had, however, been proved to be of high grade.
In 1887 the total external trade of the Gold Coast was: imports, £363,000; exports, L372,000; by 1900—that is before the develop ment of the cocoa plantation and the modern methods of gold mining—the figures had grown to: imports, £1,294,000; exports, £885,000. Twenty-five years later (1925) the figures were: im ports, £9,782,000; exports £10,890,000. Two-thirds of the im ports are from Great Britain, which takes only about a third of the exports. Much of the cocoa goes to the Continent of Europe ; the kola nuts go mostly to Nigeria. Shipping is largely British (2,693,00o tons out of a total of 4,812,000 tons in 1926-27).
Administration, Education and Revenue.—At the head of the administration is a governor, who is assisted by an execu tive council composed of officials, and a legislative council of official and non-official members, including, since 1925, members elected by the municipalities and chiefs chosen by the council of head chiefs of each province. The provinces are three—western, central and eastern—each presided over by a commissioner. The provinces, again, are divided into districts and the district com missioner is the official in direct touch with the chiefs and people. In respect of internal affairs each tribe forms a petty, independent, and democratic State. Each town or village has its chiefs or headman, and these chiefs form a council of State which elects, and can depose, the omanhene (head chief) . In practice the omanhene, who is the occupant of the tribal stool (throne), and formerly by Europeans was styled king, is chosen from certain selected families, and succession to the stool is normally through the female line. An omanhene is usually succeeded by a son— chosen by the council—of his eldest sister. The principal woman of the tribe, a personage of much influence, is known as the Queen Mother. She is usually an aunt or sister of the omanhene. The head chiefs had been accustomed for years to meet to discuss matters of common interest, but they had not statutory powers until 1925. They did much good work in guiding the tribes at a time when the rapid growth of commerce and the intermingling of the peoples was breaking up old tribal customs, and they were instrumental in getting for the natives a fuller share in the Cen tral Government. There are native tribunals with a limited civil and criminal jurisdiction, and native law is administered in all the courts as far as is compatible with "natural justice" and the law of the colony—which by an ordinance of 1874 is based on the common law of England.
Education was at first wholly in the hands of missionaries, who, by grants from the administration, still provide most of the school teaching. There are also Government primary schools. Industrial instruction, mainly agricultural in character, is given in most primary schools. A Government technical school was opened at Accra in 1909 and, later, trade schools were opened in other places. These schools instruct in agriculture, carpentry, metal work and other subjects; the object being to turn out lads likely to become capable, adaptable citizens. For teachers there are the Government training college at Accra and the Presby terian Mission seminary at Akropong. In all the institutions Africans take part in the teaching and, by an ordinance of 1927, all teachers are registered. Special care is taken to develop char acter, together with the preservation of all that is good in African culture, taking from Western civilization only that which is worthy. To this end a college—known as the Prince of Wales' college—was built at Achimota, near Accra, at a cost of £5o0, 000, primarily as a Government secondary school for boys and girls, but also to afford education from kindergarten to university standards. It was opened in 1927 with a staff of so teachers, the principal being a European and the vice-principal an African. The Gold Coast natives, in general, showed a keen desire for edu cation; the attendance in the elementary schools (1926) was about 30,000. All teachers must know at least one vernacular tongue. The languages taught are Twi, Fanti, Ga, Ewe and English. The "bush" schools, in which trained teachers give unsupervised in struction, are discouraged by the Government and, as far as possible, closed.
Expenditure was regulated by receipts, which were chiefly derived from customs (£2,244,00o in 1926-27). There is a tax of one-eighth of a penny per lb. of cocoa exported. It should be noted that, as in the case of trade returns, the figures of revenue and expenditure for the Gold Coast include Ashanti, the North ern Territories and British Togoland.
It is claimed by some writers that English seamen made voyages to the Gold Coast in the reign of Edward I., also that a company of Norman merchants established themselves about 1364 at a place they named La Mina (Elmina), and carried on trade with the natives for nearly So years, when the enterprise was aban doned. There is no definite evidence to support these claims. By order of John II. of Portugal an expedition under Diogo d'Azam buja, accompanied by Bartholomew Diaz and, probably, by Chris topher Columbus, took possession of (or founded) Elmina in 1481-82. By the Portuguese it was called variously Sao Jorge da Mina or Ora del Mina—the mouth of the (gold) mines. That be sides alluvial washings they also worked the gold mines was proved by discoveries in the latter part of the i9th century. The Portu guese had no rivals on the coast for some half century, but in English ships brought back from Guinea gold to the weight of 15o lb. The fame of the Gold Coast thereafter attracted to it adven turers from almost every European nation, the most aggressive being the Dutch, who from the end of the 16th century sought to oust the Portuguese, and in whose favour the Portuguese did finally withdraw in 1642, in return for the withdrawal of the Dutch claims to Brazil. The Dutch henceforth made Elmina their head quarters on the coast. Traces of the Portuguese occupation, which lasted 16o years, are still to be found, notably in the language of the natives. Such familiar words as palaver, fetish, caboceer and dash (i.e., a gift) have all a Portuguese origin.
The Royal African Company, which lost its monopoly of trade with England in 170o, was succeeded by another, the African Company of Merchants, which was constituted in 175o by act of parliament and received an annual subsidy from government. The slave trade was then at its height and some 10,000 negroes were exported yearly. Many of the slaves were prisoners of war sold to the merchants by the Ashanti, who had become the chief native power. The abolition of the slave trade (1807) crippled the com pany, which was dissolved in 1821, when the Crown took posses sion of the forts.
For a considerable time the Gold Coast had been a virtual de pendency of Sierra Leone. In 1874 the Gold Coast and Lagos were created a separate crown colony, this arrangement lasting until 1886 when Lagos was cut off from the Gold Coast administration.
Henderson, who had gone to the sofa camp to parley, was held prisoner for some time, while Ferguson was killed. A period of considerable tension, arising from the proximity of British and French troops in the disputed territory, was ended by the signature of a convention in Paris (June 14, 1898), in which the western and northern boundaries were defined and the British abandoned their claim to the important town arid district of Wagadugu in the Niger bend.
By the agreement with Germany and France, Britain had secured an area north of Ashanti of 3o,600sq.m. In 1897 this region was organized under the name of the Northern Territories, as a dependency of the Gold Coast, and placed in the charge of a com missioner. Col. H. P. Northcott (killed in the Boer War, 1899 1902) was the first commissioner and commandant of the troops. The government was at first of a semi-military character, but in 1907 a civilian staff was appointed to carry on the administration. In these northern regions, consisting of open but well-timbered country inhabited by tribes who were both agriculturists and stock-raisers, steady progress was made. There was considerable transport trade both with Ashanti in the south and the French colonies to the north.
An Era of Development.—In the Gold Coast colony a new era began about 190o, the year in which the revolt of the Ashanti was crushed. Sir Matthew Nathan who then became governor began the railway from Sekondi to Kumasi and in other ways ini tiated a vigorous policy of development, maintained by his succes sors, notable among whom were Sir John Rodger (governor 1904 1o), Sir Hugh Clifford (1912-19) and Sir Gordon Guggisberg (1919-27). Progress was seen in zeal for education (technical as well as literary), sanitation, and a greatly improved standard of living generally. There was a notable increase in the converts to Christianity; and in short a social and economic revolution occurred which even the World War was powerless materially to affect. The chief agent in this transformation was cocoa. The first cocoa plantation had been started in 1879 by a native of Accra. At that time coffee was being grown and it was not until 1898, when the cultivation of coffee became no longer profitable, that serious attention was paid to cocoa. The natives then took up its cultiva tion on an ever-increasing scale. By 190o the export of cocoa had become noteworthy; 20 years later the Gold Coast produced half the world's cocoa crop. The industry is entirely in the hands of the natives, Europeans acting only as purchasers and shippers, and in a decreasing degree, as carriers. The growth of the cocoa industry created private property in real estate, contrary to local custom, under which all lands are communal. Many natives became wealthy and prosperity was general.
On the outbreak of the World War the Gold Coast regiment, under Lieut.-Col. Bryant invaded Togoland and, with some help from French troops from Dahomey, speedily conquered it (Aug. 1914). Subsequently the Gold Coast regiment served both in the Cameroons and in German East Africa where it had a distin guished record. It was regularly supplied with drafts from the col ony and at the time of the armistice in 1918 had expanded into a brigade. In other ways the colony gave substantial help in the war, notably by meeting the cost of the occupation of part of Togo land, which was eventually divided into British and French spheres (see TOGOLAND).
The "boom" in trade which followed the war, and the depres sion which succeeded affected the Gold Coast but recovery came quickly. Much attention was paid to providing better communi cations, not only by railway, but by building roads for motor traf fic, while a deep water harbour, opened in April 1928, was built at Takoradi (near Sekondi). Sir Gordon Guggisberg's governor ship was notable not only for material progress but for the success ful efforts made to improve the social, moral and political condi tion of the people. In tribal matters the chiefs and their councils already had much power and natives had been nominated to seats on the legislative council of the colony. In 1925 further measures were taken to associate the people with the government. The franchise was granted for the election of the non-official members of the council, and provincial councils of head chiefs were estab lished. In this year the prince of Wales visited the Gold Coast and • he gave his name to Achimota college, an institution providing for education up to a university standard, but aiming chiefly at char acter-building. The college was opened in Jan. 1927, though the buildings were not then completed. The vice-principal was Dr. Kivegyir Aggrey, a Fanti, and the greatest native authority on the education of West Africans. Dr. Aggrey's death, on July 3o, 1927, was a loss to the whole of negro Africa.
A notable step had been taken in 1919 when by international agreement the importation of trade spirits into the Gold Coast and the other West African colonies was prohibited. The best authori ties were at variance as to the effect of trade gin on the natives, but generally, prohibition was welcomed. As the duty on spirits had been a main source of revenue, other means had to be found to get money, and they included taxes on food. But a succession of good budgets enabled the Government to abolish the food taxes in 1928. Efforts were made to widen the basis of the country's pros perity, but, apart from cocoa, only kola nut cultivation had much attraction for the natives. In its mineral resources however the colony had another valuable asset. Besides the gold mines, man ganese ores were found, and from 1921 became an important export. Diamonds and other minerals were also discovered.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Of early works The Golden Coast or a description Bibliography.-Of early works The Golden Coast or a description of Guinney (1665) and A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, written, in Dutch, by Willem Bosman, chief factor at Elmina (Eng. trans. 2nd ed., 1721) are the most notable; Col. A. B. Ellis, A History of the Gold Coast (1893) ; W. W. Claridge, A History of the Gold Coast and the Ashanti (19i5) ; J. Maxwell, Gold Coast Handbook (5923); A. W. Cardinall, A Gold Coast Library (1924, bibl.) . See also the annual reports on the colony published by the Colonial Office, London, and the authorities under ASHANTI.
(F. R. C.)