Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vsgnj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T13:22:40.594Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Information provision for rural Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

A.A. Alemna
A.A. Alemna*
Affiliation:
Department of Library and Archival Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
Get access

Extract

With a population of roughly 15 million, Ghana covers a land area of approximately 92,000 sq. miles., almost the same as that of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The country is divided into 10 regions, with English being the official language used in schools and for business. The educational programme follows, to a large extent, the pattern of Western (chiefly British) ways. A striking and potentially disturbing feature of the population is its youthfulness. The highest population densities are found in the urban and farming areas of the southern part of the country. Despite considerable urbanisation following World War II and independence in 1957, rural dwellers still represent 70-80 per cent of the population. Altogether, there are no less than 75 different languages and dialects, each more or less associated with a distinct tribal group. Fortunately, the divisive tendencies which might be expected to arise from this situation have been kept under control, largely as a result of imaginative governmental policies over many decades.

Type
Articles
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 54 , 1990 , pp. 19 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

‘Ghana’ In Africa South of the Sahara 1981-82. London, Europa Publications, 1981. p.432.Google Scholar
Baregu, M.L.M. ‘Rural libraries in functional literacy campaigns in Tanzania.’ Unesco Bulletin for Libraries Vol. 26, No. 1, 1972. pp.18–24.Google Scholar
Evans, E.J.A. A tropical library service: the story of Ghana's libraries. London, Andre Deutsch, 1969.Google Scholar
Alemna, A.A. ‘Publishing in Ghanaian Languages: problems and prospects’. International information communication and education. Vol. 8, No. 2, Sept, 1989. pp.179–187.Google Scholar
Nyarko, K. ‘The book industry in Ghana’. Ghana Library Journal. Vol. 6, No. 1 (New Series) 1988, p.16.Google Scholar
Rao, D.N. ‘Library services for rural people’. Bendel Library Journal. Vol. 4, No. 2, Dec, 1981, p.63.Google Scholar
Kotei, S.I.A. ‘Some cultural and social factors of book reading and publishing in Africa’. In Oluwasanmi, E. and others (Eds.) Publishing in Africa in the seventies. Ile-Ife, University Press, 1975. p.203.Google Scholar
Alemna, A.A. ‘The role of the Department of Library and Archival Studies in the provision of information for rural development in Ghana’. (Paper presented at the Congress of Ghana Library Association), Accra, 1990, p.7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar