The Convention People's Party Handbook: The First Fifty Years of Africa's Revolutionary Party 1949-1999

Abstract

To set the CPP within its historical context, it is necessary to begin in the fifteenth century when the seeds of colonialism were sown in West Africa. It was a time when Portuguese seamen began to explore what was then known as the Guinea Coast. They discovered that the territory between the Ankobra and Volta rivers was rich in gold. They gave it the name 'El Mina' (the mine), soon to be called the Gold Coast. Over the years other European seamen and traders entered into the scramble for West African trade. Forts and trading posts were built. The earliest English fort on the Gold Coast was Kormantine, built in 1631 but captured by the Dutch in 1665.