Answer: The Republic of Ghana is named after the medieval West African Ghana Empire. The empire became known in Europe and Arabia as the Ghana Empire after the title of its Emperor, Ghana. The Empire appears to have broken up following the 1076 conquest by the Almoravid General Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar. The Gold Coast was the first British colony in Africa to become independent. After independence, its name changed to Ghana, and the first president was Kwame Nkrumah. Ghana is in West Africa, in the Gulf of Guinea. The name Ghana comes from an ancient kingdom several 100 kilometres northwest of the modern republic.
