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 into 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. Tourism dominates the city's economy and services, with sites such as the Cape Coast Castle (World Heritage Site), 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. [2]:
Cabo Corso ("short cape") 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 (Etsii) kingdom that had its paramountcy located north of Cape Coast. That particular site is known nowadays as Effutu. [2]:
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
thumb|right|240px|A market in Cape Coast ()
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 Swedes [7]. It switched hands several times before 1664, when it was captured from the Dutch by a joint English and Dutch force. in 1678. The Danes acquired a plot on top of a hill that was located about northeast 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. 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.
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 (taxis and minibuses). 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 (executive chief) is appointed by the president of Ghana and approved by the city council, the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly. The current mayor of Cape Coast is George Justice Arthur [11].