What Do You Call Someone From Ghana? (Revealed!)

Someone from Ghana is called Ghanaian, and crucially not Ghanian. The Ghanian people are both anyone who lives in Ghana as well as being a specific cultural group that can also be found outside of Ghana. Ghana itself is comprised of multiple ethnic groups, many of which may find “Ghanaian” to be only a part of their identity.

Questions of nationality are, usually, relatively simple; questions of national identity and ethnicity are a lot more complex.

Someone from Ghana, in the broadest sense, is called a Ghanaian.

On the other hand, large numbers of people living in Ghana probably would not put this at the forefront of their identity.

Let’s find out more.

In This Article

What is someone from Ghana called?

Someone from Ghana is called a Ghanaian.

This is the shortest and simplest answer that looks simply at a person’s nationality and where they are legally associated, without looking at any more complex issues of ethnicity.

With that said, Ghanaian itself is also an ethnicity, a cultural group composed of around 30 million people who, by and large, live in Ghana.

However, living in Ghana is not the only way to be defined as Ghanaian; they themselves are really a group of people rather than a nation.

Our modern ideas of the nation state, certainly in Africa, are very recent, and in the past people would more have defined themselves by their own ethnic group and the people with whom they lived and were descended from.

What is called the ethnogensis of the Ghanaian people is traced to Nubian nomadic migrations along the Sahara Desert and up to the Gold Coast.

These are the Ghanaian people who make up the vast majority of the country’s modern day population.

On the other hand, there are many people in Ghana who do not belong to this group and whom are not ethnically Ghanaian in this sense.

Again, though, legally, they are Ghanaian citizens.

The largest of these groups is the Akans, representing around 45% of the population.

They live primarily in Ghana but are also found in the Ivory Coast.

The Mole-Dagbon people make up a further 18% of the population, and you also have minority ethnic groups in the Ew, Ga-Adangbe, Gurma, Guan and Mande people.

Any and all of these people living in Ghana called be called Ghanaian by an outsider—but in all likelihood they would consider their own ethnic identity to be the more important signifier of who they are and where they come from.

Where does the name “Ghana” come from?

The name Ghana simply means “king”, and this was the titel of the medieval Ghanaian Empire of West Africa.

Crucially, this kingdom was further north and closer to modern day Mali and Senegal.

Nonetheless, the people of modern day Ghana can trace their cultural and ethnic identities back to this group, and thus the name for Ghana comes from this medieval kingdom.

Again, though, the modern idea of a nation state is a very recent invention.

Until 1957, modern day Ghana was called the Gold Coast.

In that year, the Ghanaians gained independence from the British Empire, and thus named their country Ghana after the historical precedent.

So, though the people of Ghana have all lived there for a very long time,

Ghana as a concept has been a shifting and undulating thing over the course of the centuries—and has only been made concrete in recent years.

What language do Ghanaians speak?

There are many different languages spoken in Ghana, though the main official language is English.

This, unsurprisingly, is due to the country’s colonial past.

Many of the people would have spoken English during the country’s colonial rule, and so it continues to be used today in many official capacities.

There are of course, though, many indigenous languages.

Akan is the most widespread after English, with around 9.1 million native speakers.

Dagaare is another official language, alongiside Dagbanli, Dangme, Ewe, Ga and Gonja, among many others.

Again, with such ethnic diversity it is hardly surprising that there are so many different languages spoken in the country.

Language can also be a really important part of a person’s identity and how they define themselves.

Where do Ghanaians live?

Unsurprisingly, there is a sizeable Ghanaian diaspora around the world where you will find many people who are Ghanaian by descent but perhaps not by nationality.

There are around 500,000 Ghanaians living in Nigeria, making this the single largest population of Ghanaians outside of Ghana itself.

There are also around 116,000 Ghanaians living in the United States, and a further 100,000 in both the United Kingdom and the Ivory Coast.

The Netherlands has also historically been home to many Ghanaians, and there are around 40,000 living in the Netherlands today.

The point being that many people who are Ghanaian in a legal or ancestry sense may also feel an important other part of their identity in the country to which they have moved.

So, the simple answer, again, is that someone from Ghana is a Ghanaian.

The more complex and involved answer, though, looks at the full picture of the people living in Ghana.

As with many African nations, Ghana is a complex cultural and ethnic melting pot where lots of different people live; at the same time, many Ghanaians do not even live in Ghana itself.

Either way, the word for someone from Ghana in the sense of their nationality is Ghanaian.

More in Demonyms

Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

Was this article helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!