Cape Coast


Cape Coast is a city and the capital of the Cape Coast Metropolitan District and the Central Region of Ghana. It is located about from Sekondi-Takoradi and approximately from Accra. The city is one of the most historically significant settlements in Ghana. As of the 2010 census, Cape Coast has a population of 108,374 people. The majority of people who live in the city are Fante.
The city was once the capital of the Fetu Kingdom, an aboriginal Guan kingdom located north of Cape Coast. Once the Europeans arrived, they established the Cape Coast Castle, which eventually fell under the hands of the British who named the castle and its surrounding settlement the headquarters of the Royal African Company. Cape Coast became the capital of the Gold Coast from 1821 until 1877, when it was transferred to Accra.
Cape Coast is an educational hub in Ghana, home to the University of Cape Coast and the Cape Coast Technical University, along with many other secondary and technical institutions. The tourism dominates the city's economy and service, with sites such as the Cape Coast Castle, the Kakum National Park, and the PANAFEST festival serving as attractions to tourists, and the Kotokuraba Market being the largest market in the city.

Toponymy

The traditional name of the city is Oguaa, from the Guan Awutu word Gua, meaning "market". Another traditional name is Koto-Kuraba meaning "crab-hamlet", which is a corrupted version of the word Koto-wuraba, meaning "crab rivulets". The word survives in the name of a market in the city.
Cabo Corso was the first European name given to the settlement by the early Portuguese navigators who first discovered it. The name was later corrupted by the British to "Cape Coast".

History

Early settlement

The origin of the indigenous inhabitants of the settlement is thought to share similarities to those of Edina, as Cape Coast became the principal town of the Fetu Kingdom. "Fetu" was an old Guan kingdom that had its paramountcy located north of Cape Coast. That particular site is known nowadays as Effutu.
At a point in time, a market, known at the time as Ogua, grew and developed into an active commercial centre. Because of this growth, the King of Fetu appointed a chief to represent the settlement. The market drew the attention of William Towerson, the first documented English navigator to have reached the Guinea coast, who touched land in 1555.

Arrival of Europeans

Trade grew between the people of Fetu and the Europeans. Sometime in 1650, a plot of land was bought from the King of Fetu by Hendrik Carloff, acting for Dutch privateers working against the Dutch West India Company. In 1655, a fort was built on the site of Carolusborg under the hands of the Swedish. It switched hands several times before 1664, when it was captured from the Dutch by a joint English and Dutch force.
After the attack, the English named Cape Coast the headquarters of the Royal African Company in 1678. The Danes acquired a plot on top of a hill that was located about north east of the fort. While the Cape Coast Castle was being built, the Danish built a fort on their land, known as Fort Frederiksborg. The fort was later bought out by the English.
For half a century, the English maintained Frederiksborg as a fortified outpost of the castle and renamed it Fort Royal, but by the middle of the 18th century, the outpost had been abandoned. Other forts were built during this time, such as Phipps Tower, which was later abandoned and is now managed by the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board.

Colonial times

The Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the 19th century and the political unrest in the Gold Coast region as a result of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade by Denmark and Britain were contributing factors in the Asante invasion of the coast in 1806. Cape Coast itself avoided the attack, but the confidence of the townspeople in the British ability to protect them against the Asante plummeted.
More forts were built, such as Smith's Tower on top of Dawson Hill and Fort McCarthy.
Cape Coast was threatened a second time by the Asante in 1824 after British troops under Charles MacCarthy were defeated. The town had been largely burnt down in 1817, slowing down its economy.
Before the building of the Sekondi Harbour in the 1890s, the town was the most important anchorage in the county. Trading during the time was at its peak, but after 1850, the year the British acquired Danish possessions, conditions turned sour. Trade declined, rivalry with the Dutch reached new heights, and Asante pressures escalated.
The capital of the Gold Coast was transferred from Cape Coast to Accra in 1877. This, along with many other causes, resulted in irreversible damage to the town's economy. The 1880s saw a minor boom in its economy with the gold rush.

Present (1900–present)

The city's St. Francis Cathedral was dedicated in 1928. The building is the first Catholic Cathedral built in Ghana. In addition, one of the first Catholic schools in Ghana, St. Augustine's College, was established in Cape Coast in 1936. During Ghana's cocoa marketing boom of the 1900s, the city experienced a certain period of economic prosperity.
After the completion of harbours and railways in other parts of the country, such as Sekondi and Kumasi, cocoa cultivation and trade in Ghana diversified, and Cape Coast lost some importance. However, after the establishment of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese and the university of the city in 1950 and 1962 respectively, Cape Coast became an educational hub in Ghana.

Transportation

Transportation in the city is regulated by the Transport Department of the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly, with Dennis K. Sulemanu acting as the transport officer of the department.
In certain areas, such as Abura, with a population of 15,000 in 2000 and located close to major establishments, transportation needs are served by local transport. Most residents in Cape Coast do not own personal vehicles, with the exception of the city's middle class, which includes government and educational staff. Congestion is present, made worse by the city being located south of the Accra–Takoradi trunk road.
In 1873, there was a proposal for a line to link the settlements of Cape Coast and Kumasi in order to send troops to fight the Asante. It never came to fruition due to the war ending sooner than expected.
Plans for the construction of an airport for the city were announced by Mahamudu Bawumia at the New Patriotic Party's manifesto launch on August 18, 2024. According to Mahamudu, the in funding has been secured from South Korean investors.

Government

The metropolitan has a mayor–council form of government. The mayor is appointed by the president of Ghana and approved by the city council, the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly. The mayor of Cape Coast is Ernest Arthur, currently serving his second term in office.

Demographics

As of the 2010 census, the population of Cape Coast is 108,374 people which grew to 189,925 by 2021. The city was historically an early centre for Christian missionaries, most notably the Basel missionaries. Christianity is the most practised religion in the city, followed by Islam and traditional religions. The largest ethnic group that resided in the city are the Fante, who are a subgroup of the Akan. The ethnic group's language is Fante.

Geography

Cape Coast is located at and is about from Sekondi-Takoradi and approximately from Accra.

Metropolitan Area

The city resided in the Cape Coast Metropolitan, which has an area size of and is one of 6 metropolises in Ghana. The district is bordered to the south by the Gulf of Guinea, the Hemang-Lower Denkyira District to the north, to the west by the Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem Municipal District, and to the east by the Abura/Asebu/Kwamankese District.

Topography

The city's topography is classified as hilly, the hills overlain by sandy silts. The rock type of the city is dominated by the Birimian formation and batholiths, also consisting of granite and pegmatite. There are valleys of various streams between the hills, with Kakum being the largest stream. The minor streams end in wetlands, the largest of which drains into the Fosu Lagoon at Bakano. In the northern part of the district, however, the landscape is suitable for the cultivation of various crops.

Parks

Cape Coast is noted for its significant green spaces, but rapid population and infrastructure growth present threats to its vegetation. The city's greenery plays a crucial role in flood management and improving residents' overall well-being. Data from a 2023 study showed that the metropolitan's dense vegetation in 2018 was, a 24.01% decrease from in 1991.

Climate

Cape Coast has a tropical savanna climate, with two rainy seasons peaking in May to June and October. The dry periods occur between November and February. The annual rainfall ranges from along the coast while in the hinterland is between. The average temperatures are around while the relative humidity is between 60% and 80%.

Culture

Cape Coast is a part of the Oguaa Traditional Area. The main festival celebrated in the city is Fetu Afahye, which is celebrated in the first Sunday of September every year, and it attracts people of all different backgrounds.

Media

The following is a selected list of radio stations in Cape Coast:
;FM
  • 90.3 Kastle FM
  • 93.3 Cape FM
  • 92.5 Radio Central
  • 100.5 ATL FM
  • 102.9 Yes FM
  • 87.7 Eagle FM
  • 90.9 Sompa FM
  • 107.5 Live FM

    Economy

Agriculture

in the city is managed by the Department of Agriculture of the metropolitan. The head of the department is Olympia Enyonam Williams. Results from a 2005 study found that Cape Coast has close to no irrigated vegetable farming taking place within the city proper expect for the premises of Cape Coast University. Close to 90% vegetables consumed by the city's residents come from sources such as Kumasi and as far as Togo and its border with Ghana.
The city's topography makes farming difficult to achieve. There are limited suitable areas that could be used for farming; those that meet the criteria are prone to floods. This makes Cape Coast and its surrounding areas one of the most water scarce in Ghana, resulting in most of the residents resorting to fishing.