10 ''Interesting'' Town Names in Ghana

Welcome to a new blog in my series where we look into funny or interesting city or town names around the world. This time I decided to choose a random country instead of choosing which country to look into myself, and the country that came out of that was... Ghana! So today we'll look into 10 towns and cities in Ghana. Enjoy!

Population: ??? (Couldn't find data)

So I guess Ghana wants to tease us about their towns (and their population figures) without actually showing them to us.

On a more technical note, this is the capital of Kwahu-Afram Plains South District (yeah, that's a long and convoluted name), a rural, not very populated district on the side of lake Volta.

Still wondering who named this town, considering English is spoken in Ghana alongside local languages.

Population: 71 051

Yeah, just Wa! Ghana doesn't like long place names, I guess.

It is the biggest city in the area inhabited by the Waala people and capital of the Kingdom of Wala for a long time.

The Damba festival is celebrated here, which, among other things, includes stepping over a cow without touching it!

Population: 96 213

Ho! Ho! Ho! I guess we found Santa Claus' new home. I wonder why he left the North Pole...

Ho is located to the west of Lake Volta and is the capital of Volta Region. It used to be part of German Togoland before becoming part of the Gold Coast colony (which is the precent to modern-day Ghana)

The city boasts the University of Health and Allied Sciences, a public university and also a teaching hospital as well as the headquarters of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ghana and a market that attracts a lot of people from the region and from neighbouring country Togo.

Population: 56 202

So this seems like an evolution of the last one (it's in the same region too!), but this one includes 'Hoe' which... yeah. Anyways, this city is really close to the border with Togo.

Afadjato, the highest peak in Ghana is really close (about 20 km) to Hohoe. Aside from that, there's not really that much to say about it

Population: 371 351

Sounds like Ghana really likes Mesoamerican food...

Tamale is the capital of Ghana's Northern Region and the country's third largest city. It is part of the kingdom of Dagbon, homeland of the Dagomba people, and which still assumes a customary role, with it's current monarch being king Gariba II.

Tamale has been developing fast in the last few decades with modern buildings and it has the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium, which hosted some of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations matches.

Population: 78 785

I suppose there is a dome in this suburb of Accra (Ghana's capital and biggest city), I don't know why would it be named like this otherwise.

It is a densely populated area sourrouded by hills to the north of the Ghanaian capital.

Population: 68 459

Another suburb of Accra. If you wonder why I included it, it has to do with the muslim Taifas of Iberia. In short, the muslim kingdoms had three periods where their rule in Iberia collapsed and several small kingdoms, called Taifas, were formed (Read more about Taifas from this Wikipedia page)

The Ghana Atomic Energy Comission is located here as well as a railway station. This town only had

1 009 inhabitants in the 1984 census, which just goes to show how much the population of the area is growing

Population: 169 894

Yeah, this is a really imaginative name (There is a cape nearby and it's by the coast).

This is a big and historical city in Ghana, they even have a UNESCO World Heritage site here (Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions, which includes several castles and fortressed on Ghana's coast), the Cape Coast Castle, which was originally Portuguese and then Swedish, Danish, Dutch until finally becoming part of the British Gold Coast colony (modern day Ghana).

It is the capital of the Central region of Ghana, which is on the south of the country and has always being an important fishing port.

John Atta Mills, who served as president of Ghana from 2009 to 2012 was born here.

Population: ??? (Couldn't find data)

You would think this would be close to the coast, you know, to fish tuna, but it's actually almost as far as you can get from it in Ghana. It is a very small town, and it's close to Mole National Park, which also boasts an interesting name and is Ghana's first and largest national park.

Population: ??? (Couldn't find data)

I guess they have a lot to show us in Have (and in the Volta Region of Ghana, which has been featured a lot in this blog).

This is, again, a smaller town, but it's close to Keta Lagoon, a protected area in Ghana. Lomé, Togo's capital, which is on the border with Ghana, is nearby as well.

Locally, Have is referred to as Ewetogbeka or Nyito as well by the Ewe people who are the majority of inhabitants in this area of Ghana, and who migrated from Sudan in the 17th century.

- Nope, West Region

- Dodo, Oti Region (though Dodos didn't live here)

- Kong, Upper West Region (Wonder where the 'Hong' went)

- Lebanon, Greater Accra (Of course not to be confused with Lebanon, Tennessee, USA)

- Oduponkpehe, Central Region (longest place name in Ghana that appears on citypopulation.de.)

So, there you have it, those are some place names in Ghana that I found interesting.

I know I took much time to post, but I've been quite busy (in fact, I haven't posted a quiz in several months) and this blogs take time, and also I like to do them little by little instead of dedicating a lot of hours straight to them, so I can't promise the next one will come out any sooner. Hope you can understand!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed what Ghana's town names had to offer us!