On the Line
The Greenwich or Prime Meridian passes through Ghana from the north east corner to Tema, just east of the capital, Accra. South of this there is no other land mass before reaching Antarctica. Despite the fact that this covers a distance of about 610 km, remarkably few population centres are crossed, because the line runs through a large portion of the Volta Lake, north of which exist some of the most sparsely populated areas in the country. In some cases it is difficult to decide whether the Prime Meridian actually passes through a settlement, some of which have diffuse peripheries. In the north it is also difficult to decide whether a scattered collection of dwellings actually constitute a community, and if so, to identify its toponym.
The places listed below have the distinction of being identified as On-The-Line.
If you know of a place in Ghana through which the Line passes, which is not listed here, please send details to Ghana Place Names.
All locations given below are on the Prime Meridian and may therefore differ slightly from locations given for places in The Database.
11.079 Pulimakom, Pusiga District, UE
✈ The most northerly place that the Line passes through is the border post of Pulimakom, on a road leading to the town of Cinkassé, or Sankase, in Togo. There is some uncertainty in the location of Pulimakom, since the GEOnet Names Server coordinates are on the Togo side of the border. Assuming that the border is marked correctly, it seems likely that Pulimakom is in the vicinity of the formal establishment seen on the satellite image enclosed by a rectangle of trees, as there is no other obvious site for official control of the border. A barrier can also be seen across the road there at the right-angle bend.
10.548 Kpunkparabago / Najong No.2, Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo District
✈ These two toponyms are 'positional allonyms' in the GNS list, i.e. they are given the same coordinates, but it is not known if they actually refer to the same settlements. Only Najong No.2 appears in the 2012 Election Polling Station List.
9.443 Yendi, Yendi Municipal District
✈ Yendi is the capital town of Yendi Municipal District and the seat of the Yani, the Paramount Chief, King of all Dagboŋ. The Line passes about 400m to the east of Yendi Hospital.
8.654 Wulensi, Nanumba South District
✈ Wulensi is the capital town of Nanumba South District.
8.195 Unknown Junction, Krachi Nchumuru District
✈ The satellite image of this junction on the Dodoikope - Zongo Macheri road is of poor resolution but shows evidence of a few scattered dwellings.
8.127 Unknown Village, Krachi Nchumuru District
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7.941 Unknown Village, Krachi West District
✈ The district of this unidentified village is determined by its proximity to both Osramanae and Monkra, both of which are listed by the 2012 Election Polling Station List in Krachi West.
7.879 Abujuro, Krachi West
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6.343 Sedorm, Asuogyaman District
✈ In 2006, Clark Sustainable Resource Developments, a subsidiary of the Canadian company, Triton Logging, was granted a concession of up to 25 years for a timber harvesting operation in the Volta Lake. According to a Ghana News Agency report, "As part of the project, CSR Development has acquired a site at Sedorm, a village along the Volta Lake and about seven kilometres from Akosombo, to build a wood milling and processing factory to serve as a direct source of employment for the people in the locality". The timber, which is estimated to have an economic value of about $3 billion, will come from trees which were submerged when the Lake was formed. The project will have the additional benefits of rendering the Lake safer to fishermen, and of providing an alternative source of timber which does not deplete the rainforests.
6.263 Sapor, Asuogyaman District
✈ At this point, the Line crosses a valley which runs from south-west to north-east, along which flows the River Sapor, joining the Volta Lake at an inlet to the west of the Akosombo Dam. The US army map NB30-8 shows four places named after the river at intervals along the valley, all of them to the west of this location, but the satellite image shows that these settlements have expanded to form an almost continuous line which now extends east of the Prime Meridian.
6.221 Unknown Village, Asuogyaman District
✈ This third linear settlement, just south of Tortibo, merges with the latter a little to the north-east, a small ridge separating the two up to this point.
6.139 Krobo Odumase, Lower Manya Krobo District
✈ The Line just passes through a suburb of Krobo Odumase, the administrative capital of Lower Manya Krobo. As the traditional centre of the Krobo people, the town hosts the annual harvest festival, Ngmayemi (ngma = food; yemi = eating), held in October/November, which celebrates the bringing in of the millet crop. The town is also noted for Cedi Beads Industry, a family-run business making Krobo powder-glass beads.
5.800 Afienya, Ningo-Prampram District
✈ Afienya is a town on the Akosombo road about 20 km north of Tema.
5.635 Tema, Tema Metropolitan District
✈ Tema is the largest of Ghana's two seaports and lies about 24 km east of the the capital, Accra, to which it is connected by Ghana's first motorway. The city has major industries, including an oil refinery, and the VALCO aluminium smelter. The latter was built in conjunction with Akosombo Dam as part of an agreement between Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's Government, and the American company, Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation. Tema is appropriately twinned with Greenwich, London.