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The article presents the author's accounts on the development of science education in Ghana, Africa, as based from a working paper prepared for the Fourteenth Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs. These accounts are being derived from the author's observations during the six months he spent in 1963-64 as a visiting professor of physics at the University of Ghana. The author said that his length of stay in Ghana was long enough to gain an impressive view of people's great efforts to overcome their difficulties, of their optimistic belief in progress through education, and finally of their openmindedness and warm hospitality.

The article presents observations on microclimate and vegetation interrelationships on the Accra Plains in Ghana. The paper aims to shed light towards a better understanding of microclimate and its interrelationships with the vegetation of the southern savanna zone in Ghana which was known as the Accra Plains. It carried out a measurement of microclimate and transpiration during a complete 24 hour period during the dry season. It set up seven microclimatological stations in a characteristic tree and shrub clump and the surrounding grassland.

The problem of unemployment among youth has been a matter of urgency for many governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America during recent years. Another is the innocent aggravation of the problem by the programmes of accelerated expansion of primary and middle-school education in the new independent states, such as Ghana and Nigeria, which flood the labour market with armies of school-leavers each year. The response of the Ghana government to this deteriorating position was quick. A White Paper on a national workers brigade was published in August 1957 and referred to the concern of the government at the growing problem of unemployment amongst school-leavers. The White Paper on a National Workers Brigade proposed to establish a new organization and provide a new approach to the unemployment problem in Ghana. The great increase in strength of the brigade was achieved through a programme of rapid expansion of the number of camps, from two to sixteen. Leadership training was instituted in January 1959. Since there is much waste of effort and money, the workers brigade may not be a very useful model for all countries to follow.

This paper presents the results on the construction of a Working Life Table for males in Ghana, 1960. Comparisons of working life tables for Ghana and other industrialized countries such as the United States, England and Wales are made. In addition, some aspects of the uses of working life tables are considered, particularly the examination of annual losses from the actual working population and the factors determining the pattern of losses. It was estimated that out of the total number who left the working population of Ghana in 1960, 89.9% left on account of death and only 10.1% left on account of causes other than death. The total loss rate for Ghana in 1960 amounted to 23.3 per 1000 male working population; made up of rates 20.9 per 1000 for losses due to death and 2.4 per 1000 for losses due to retirement and other causes respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Examines the relations between African farmers and agricultural experts in the cocoa industry of Ghana. Responses to proposals by agricultural experts and extension workers; Rise in the exports of Ghana between 1919 and 1959.

The indigenous treatment of mental disorders in Ghana, West Africa, despite its continuity with a tribal past, is in process of change by the pressures of urbanization. Although retaining a dominant position in the therapy of mental disorders, it is challenged increasingly by Christian faith healing and Western psychiatry. The aim of this paper is to analyze the meaning of illness from perspective of patients, the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures of the native doctor as components of a sub-culture and the mode of change in the position of this profession as compared with that of Christian faith-healing and Western psychiatry. The native doctor in Ghana, West Africa has a heritage of orientations, practices and rituals for the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders as components of an occupational culture. This culture is suitable peculiarly to the treatment of the African's disordered behavior because it provides a frame of reference and perspective to illness generally and mental disorders particularly which the patient and native doctor, as indigenous psychiatrist, share. Both conceive of disordered behavior as a supernatural phenomenon and as determined by spirits, black magic or juju and witches and not as naturalistic products of conflicts or germs. Hence the native doctor can communicate with and influence the patient.

This paper examines patterns of social recruitment into a group of highly selective secondary schools in contemporary Ghana. It indicates distinctive features of the Ghanaian polity and economy which have led to a commensurately greater preoccupation with education as an instrument of social mobility than at earlier periods in the West. Further, it attempts to show in what respects the emergent social structures of West Africa can be meaningfully compared with their western counterparts. The internal differentiation of the Ghanaian secondary school system is examined and an attempt is made to show that marked fluidity of recruitment patterns into the schools is attributable to the "non-class" character of Ghanaian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the role of senior bureaucrats in both developing and developed political systems is multifunctional, and that changes in the personnel, structures, and goals of a political system affect the multifunctional content of the senior bureaucrats' role. Merton's concept of role set is utilized to demonstrate how political changes in Ghana and Nigeria have affected the role of the senior bureaucrats in these two systems. From these two examples a set of tentative propositions are advanced on this subject, and an effort is made to relate these to Homans' theory of elementary social behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among a number of the newly independent nations that have emerged from their former colonial status in the decades since World War II, it is becoming increasingly apparent that Western forms of economic and social organization are being bent to the service of the state. Because of their importance for rapid economic growth as well as their significance as an instrument of political power, trade unions are among the most important of the organizations which are being reshaped in the interest of national purpose. Such a development is taking place in Ghana: union membership is virtually compulsory in wage employment, only officially approved labor organizations may exist, and trade union structure and government are becoming highly centralized. The legislative developments by which these changes are being accomplished are described and analyzed in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research was to increase understanding of the relationship between family variables and measures of child welfare by using the conceptual framework which is being developed by Frank W. Young and Ruth C. Young (1969). The concept of differentiation was measured by ten household-level and nine individual-level indicators, and the concept of integration by twelve indicators. These were factor analyzed and the significant measures in each set used in a multiple regression with four measures of child welfare. Conclusions were that welfare status is not explained by the use of individual measures on their own: integration is an important family dimension to consider along with differentiation, and the wife's level of differentiation has a significant independent effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the use of economic assistance during the 1957 to1966 in Ghana. Analysis on the social and political developments; Evaluation of the degree of modernization through consumption patterns, literacy levels and occupational structure; Contribution of economic assistance to development.

The article discusses various issues related to rationality and migration in Ghana. Authors have demonstrated that migration in Ghana is responsive to income differentials. Distance is a strong deterrent to migration and undoubtedly is a surrogate for differences in culture, social organization, and language as well as for transport cost. Regions of large population are attractive to migrants. These results are similar and consistent with conclusions for Western countries. Education is negatively related to migration. There is no evidence that education causes migration except insofar as it increases income potential and lessens an individual's abhorrence of cultural and social adjustments. Urbanization and population density are important. Regions with large populations of town and city dwellers appear to be attractive to migrants and also to supply relatively large numbers of migrants. Finally, the high coefficients of multiple determinations obtained, and the significance of parameters may have special interest in view of the absence of previous work of this sort in developing areas.

Age data from the 1960 and earlier censuses of Ghana allow the construction of child-woman ratios, which appear to indicate the existence of a substantial urban-rural fertility differential. Plausible assumptions of urban-rural mortality differentials increase the apparent fertility differential. In this article recently published data for Statistical Areas in the country's larger towns are used to demonstrate that one explanation for the fertility differential is almost certainly the enumeration of some females in the towns, while one or more of their surviving children were enumerated outside. Nevertheless, in 1960 the four largest towns exhibited birth levels, which are likely to have been about 11 percent below those of the population in the surrounding regions. Roughly half the differential can be attributed to a general urban-rural differential and half to socio-economic differentials within the towns. This article argues that the fertility differentials are evidence of some fertility decline among key groups in the population and that such declines are likely to become more widespread.

In Ghana, as in other developing countries, it has been held that one cultural element acting towards the maintenance of high fertility has been the awareness that large families do more than small ones to ensure assistance to parents during sickness and especially during old age. The only experience known to the society of the fortunes of those in the latter condition is necessarily that of those who are already old and need such assistance. During 1963-64 a survey of 800 retired persons over 60 years of age was made in Ghana. Respondents of each sex were randomly selected within the urban southern rural and northern rural areas of the country. An examination was made of the effects of mortality and other factors in reducing the amount of possible assistance given by their children below the potential maximum determined by the original level of births. Differentials in fertility by area of present residence were discovered. It was shown that, although the average number of children supporting aged parents is greater in the case of large families, the extent of the assistance is not proportional to original family size, because of differentials in mortality, the chances of survivors reaching adulthood by their parents' old age, and the chances of adult survivors being able or willing to give such assistance. Only families who had between one and four children presented their parents with any considerable risk of receiving no help from their children. It was shown that there are grounds for conflict between the need for maximising assistance by having as many children as possible and by educating as many as possible. It was also shown that there is little evidence that parents consciously make such decisions in order to create an individual `social welfare' system in that an extension of the state social welfare system would not, according to respondents, do much to change their views about desired family size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study regarding the tissue water relations of some wooden species of the Accra Plains in Ghana. It discusses that extensive evidence exists to indicate that plant distribution in West Africa is to a great extent controlled by some aspect of the moisture factor of the environment. The principal division of the natural vegetation of this area into forest and savanna is believed to reflect this control, savanna species having greater adaptation to drought that forest species.

The article examines the variation in structure and composition of vegetation on catena in moist semi-deciduous forest near Kade, Ghana, in relation to soil types and microclimate. According to the research, microclimatic study shows that there is little difference in the diurnal ranges of air and soil temperatures, relative humidity and evaporation of the top, middle and bottom slopes of the catena under forest conditions. It also was observed that the upper slope bears a distinct plant community, but that the vegetation of the middle slope is not very different from that of the lower slope.

The article focuses on the study of the species composition, structure, and environment of the vegetation in Mole Game Reserve in Ghana. Mole Game Reserve is a natural, and developed reserve in Ghana. The study conducted observations on the reserve's vegetation, soil, and microclimate during the dry end seasons. The study found two dominant trees, which are the Burkea africana, and the Terminalia avicennioides. Also conducted was the excavation of tree roots, from which all fourteen species were found sprouting.

The article presents a study which assesses the affects of seasonal zonation of a rocky coastal reef relative to tidal factors in Christiansborg, Ghana. It states that the zonation influence the increase or decrease of the quantity and vertical distribution of seaweeds especially during summer. The seasonal changes are attributed to the decreasing sea temperature and increase of nutritive salt concentration which cause the algae to migrate to the shore earlier than expected. It concludes that rainfall, humidity and amount of cloud do not significantly influence the change.

In education, as in other respects, Ghana's position has been a lodestar from which other emerging nations chart their course. This pioneer status has attracted many eminent scholars to scrutinize the system at close quarters, and to examine the origins of Ghanaian students. Thus, within three years of the University of Ghana's inception Gustav Jahoda found that 66 per cent of its students came from the top 7 per cent of the working population, while farmers and manual workers were poorly represented. Subsequent scholars have reached similar results, although some have preferred to emphasize long-term trend toward a student body more representative of the population as a whole. Unfortunately, such optimism proves to have been somewhat premature. The debate has also illuminated the variety of interpretations of social stratification. Sociologists take the observed, inequality of life chances as axiomatic evidence of the existence of class differences. They replied that class has a psychological as well as a structural connotation, and he suggests that relative consensus over the value of education itself indicates the classlessness of Ghanaian society.

Throughout a wide area of West Africa divination operates through a complex geomantic system known as "Ifa" by the Yoruba of Nigeria, "Fa" by the Fon of Dahomey and "Afa" or "Afakala" by the Ewe of Togo and Ghana. The existence of an extensive body of literature on the subject makes a detailed discussion of the system superfluous. In this article, the author deals with the consultation situation, viewed as a normatively regulated social encounter between the diviner and his client. Or, to put it in a slightly different way, the author talks about what happens when the client behaves in a manner which can be called out of line and which threatens the diviner with loss of face. During a consultation, it is the task of the diviner to obtain a sign for his client and to give him advice and instruction in the light of that sign. There are several techniques which may be used to obtain such a sign, both involving the use of a sand-covered, wooden board upon which the diviner makes the several marks which constitute a complete sign. One technique employed is that in which the diviner works with sixteen palm-nuts. These are held in his right hand while he attempts to take away as many as he can with his left. If he is left with one nut in his right hand, he makes a double vertical line on the board. If two nuts are left, he makes a single vertical line on the board. If more than two nuts are left, he makes no mark. A complete sign is obtained when the diviner has made eight marks, either double or single lines, on the board.

The article discusses one-party system and two-party systems with special reference to Ghana. It can probably be agreed that in Ghana there was no clear basis for a regularly alternating two-party system based upon class divisions. At best a class analysis would be marginally applicable to Accra and conceivably to Kumasi, a class-based party system would have left the United Gold Coast Convention in a permanent minority. Secondly, it would probably also be agreed that an interest-based system would have resulted in a number of parties. The effect of a single-member plurality system, without electoral corruption, would simply have been the crystallization of a multi-party system based upon Northern, Ashanti and Togo particularism. There are a large number of structural and institutional similarities between the heroic period of Soviet take-off and the present Ghanaian effort to modernize. Such resemblances are not simply coincidental, but arise from basic decisions to rapidly industrialize within the framework of a one-party system. There are present a number of features normally associated with totalitarianism. Hence, the conclusion must be that Ghana is not a totalitarian society but the instruments exist to turn it that way and a severe recession or similar crises could teeter the government over the edge from authoritarianism in a hurry to totalitarianism.

The article focuses on a study based on information obtained on all arts and science degree entrants to the University of Ghana, Legon in 1957 and 1960. Although the University College of Ghana opened only in 1948, university education has been part of the training of sons in some coastal families for more than three generations. There are still large numbers of Ghanaians who receive university education abroad, either because the subject they wish to study is not taught in Ghana or for prestige reasons. Still, the university population in Ghana has grown rapidly and the majority now do at least their undergraduate work in Ghana. Since these graduates perform key functions in Ghana as in all developing countries, it seems useful to examine theft background, to see how representative they are of the population as a whole and what changes have taken place in the university population since independence in 1957. In the light of the high status of university graduates, access to the university is an indication of the possibility of social mobility.

One hundred and eleven households in a community in Ghana were studied to assess the applicability and generality of the concept of structural differentiation as proposed by F. W. and R. C. Young (1968). Eight individual-based and six household-based indices were used. The analysis shows that, for these households, a modification of the Young's proposal extracts more order from the data. This modification involves consideration of individual attributes as representing "potential" household differentiation and 2) the stability and ease of communication within the household as intervening factors between "potential" and "actual" household differentiation. Implications for policy decisions are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents findings of a research on pollen dispersal experiments, conducted by the author while on the staff of the Cocoa research institute at Tafo in Ghana. Flowering, in Ghana, occurs with definite peak periods. It is scanty and spasmodic in the January to March dry-season, then very heavy at the beginning of the rains usually in April. It then declines to become almost nil during the peak of the main-crop period, but increases somewhat as this crop is removed from the trees. The flower is very small. A small ovary is surmounted by a slender style, which is split terminally to five stigmatic lobes, which hardly diverge and can rarely be distinguished from the style without a lens.

The article discusses the factors contributing to the political downfall of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, one of the most influential Pan-Africanists of the 20th century. The failure of Ghana was attributed to other factors such as the fall in the price of cocoa, cold war maneuvering by some of its benefactors and faulty advice. Examples that indicate the personal decline of Nkrumah were presented.

Examines forms of economic organization in Ghana before it was incorporated into the British Empire at the end of the 19th century. Analysis of the village subsistence economy; Forms of economic organization associated with long distance trade; Discussion on the relevance of pre-colonial forms to 20th century economic development.

Northern Ghana is Ghana's problem region. It is a large area accounting for about half the total land surface of Ghana, yet it is the least developed part of the country. It would be futile to seek to explain the lack of economic development in the region mainly with reference to the problems of the savanna environment, which indeed are no more serious than in many other parts of West Africa where there has been greater economic development. The reason must be sought primarily in the strategy adopted for economic development, which at first failed to identify the fundamental problems of low productivity in food farming and high transport costs. Later, the solution of the transport problem was made conditional upon the success of the measures adopted for increasing agricultural productivity; yet these measures proved to be partially unrealistic since they ignored long-established local values and preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Northern Ghana is characterized by dispersed settlement. The pattern derives basically from a system of fixed cultivation which is rare in tropical areas. The layout of a house reflects family structure; similarly, patterns of land holdings reflect stages in community evolution. Originally circular, home-farms are divided by inheritance into radial strips, diminishing in size over the generations. Settlement dispersal commences with domestic fission within agnatic lineages. Society is strongly patrilocal, and ancestor worship a powerful influence. Study of lineage affiliation indicates a spread of settlement from ancestral core areas, usually in defensible hilly areas. Because of high per capita cost of provision of services, there is a need to concentrate settlement, if any degree of modern development is to be achieved. Lack of a major cash crop to finance local development is one obstacle, but greater still are the social difficulties confronting any attempt to re-cast the settlement pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the opening of the first artificial harbor at Takoradi in 1928 Ghana possessed numerous surf ports, most of which originated early through European trade contacts with the coast, Subsequent disappearance or survival of ports depended on the changes in speed and direction of the country's economic development. Finally the flourishing economy of the 1920's made the construction of a modern port imperative, and most surf ports disappeared after the construction of Takoradi harbor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on investment in tropical Africa while emphasizing economic, social and political aspects of opportunities for development and obstacles to change. Although by Western standards tropical Africa is poverty-stricken, per capita incomes averaging $50-150 per year, it has progressed rapidly, especially since World War II, and it gives every promise of continued and even accelerated growth rates. No one who has visited these lands, even if only for a short visit, can fail to detect the atmosphere of hope and progress, of peoples on the move emerging into the twentieth century, although still wrapped in the cocoon of a tribal world. The years since the end of the second World War have seen a marked quickening in the tempo of political evolution in the area. The first great change, however, did not come until 1957 when Ghana (then the Gold Coast) became a self-governing Dominion within the British Commonwealth. Africa needs the capital, the skills, and the know-how that only Western firms can offer. It realizes that the goals of rapid development, which usually includes industrialization, cannot be achieved in any other way. In return, the foreigner should show his sympathy, especially by employing and upgrading his African staff as quickly as is feasible.

The hypothesis to be examined is that there were considerable net costs in the choice of suppliers' credits as a method of financing Ghanaian industrialization in the early 1960s. The hypothesis will be tested in terms of industrial projects only. Omitted thus is the suppliers' credit financing of prestige projects and/or "white elephants"; likewise omitted is the suppliers' credit financing of infrastructure projects, because their long gestation periods and low returns on investment make them suitable only for loans of long maturity at concessional terms. Industrial projects are the only ones for which returns can be measured with any degree of certainty. The returns from infrastructure projects are usually tied in with "secondary benefits," and to calculate returns on these is problematical. Returns from prestige projects are, of course, intangible. By concentrating on the financing of industrial projects through suppliers' credits, the intention is to put the hypothesis to a vigorous test. In evaluating the suitability of suppliers' credits on Ghanaian industrialization, the proposition is advanced that in Ghana it takes about 5-6 years to bring a publicly owned plant into profitable operation (in terms of both domestic currency and foreign exchange)—assuming that the plant is feasible to begin with. The effect of this longer than average "learning period" on the length of financing provided by suppliers' credits is profound. The attractiveness—at least in theory—of the suppliers' credits arrangement will be examined both from Ghana's and the equipment-exporting country's points of view. The hypothesis to be tested here is that the arrangements surrounding suppliers' credits, more likely than not, will lead to abuse. Therefore, in conclusion, the "solutions" that will be offered wilt be outside the framework of the existing suppliers' credit arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued that high fertility in rural areas of developing countries is a rational response to the environment. In the course of a major program of population study in Ghana, it was decided that an investigation should be made of fertility attitudes in rural areas, as a preliminary and supplement to a much more detailed enquiry into family formation and limitation in the more socially modernized areas of the towns. Even the limited expanse of rural Africa found in Ghana is no longer homogeneous. It has been penetrated to different degrees by urbanization, the cash economy, the planting of non-subsistence crops, and the arrival of schooling facilities. Obviously these things change the environment and may affect the rationality of high fertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the consequences of restricted ability in the use of formal English. It examines the extent to which pre-college students in Ghana had used English in various social interaction settings during their school lives. The findings show a significant relationship between the use of English in social interaction and Vocabulary scores. The implication of the study is that language facility and reasoning ability are relatively discrete potentialities. It suggests the development of methods of increasing the use of English in social interaction.