This youth is mastering the West African craft of casket making. Traditionally in Ghana, burial caskets are custom designed to symbolize the deceased person's profession (for example, a fisherma's casket would take the shape of a boat or a driver's casket would take the form of a truck). This shop is located in a village along the Gold Coast, between Cape Coast and Apam. Boys in Ghana begin apprenticeships for crafts such as woodcarving, metalsmithing or weaving in their very early teens. Ghana, located north of the equator, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, was a British colony until it achieved independence from the UK on March 6, 1957 (the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to do so). Although agriculture accounts for most of its employment, much of its farming and ranching lacks adequate irrigation and remains virtually primitave. Industry, fishing and tourism also contribute to the country's national economy. Five prominent tribes (Akan, Moshi-Dagomba, Ewe, Ga and Gurma) account for most of the country's population (around 22.5 million). Natural resouorces include, precious metals, timber, industrial diamonds, bauxite, rubber, petroleum, salt, fish, cocoa and limestone.

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