Nkrumah's great project: a dam that powered a young nation, a lake the size of a small country, and the tens of thousands of people whose villages went under the water.
The idea of damming the Volta at the Akosombo gorge was older than independence; British engineers had studied it in colonial times. Kwame Nkrumah made it the centrepiece of his plan to industrialise Ghana. Cheap hydroelectric power would run an aluminium smelter, light the cities and drive factories; the lake would bring fishing, transport and irrigation.
The money came from a mix of the World Bank, the United States, the United Kingdom and Ghana itself, and the deal was tied to an American-led aluminium smelter at Tema, which received power on long-term, very favourable terms. Critics then and since have argued that the smelter got the better of the bargain. Construction began in 1961.
The Akosombo Dam and Africa's dream of independenceOn africanindependence.com. Akosombo at Ghana 70On myghana2027.com.Nkrumah formally inaugurated the dam in January 1966. It was one of his last great public moments: a month later, while he was abroad, he was overthrown in a military coup. The dam he built outlived his government, and every Ghanaian who switched on a light in the decades that followed did so in part because of it.
The formal inauguration of the Akosombo DamOn ghana-net.com. Ghana's independence from BritainThe years before the dam.Behind the dam the river backed up into one of the largest artificial lakes in the world by surface area. It stretches roughly 400 kilometres north into the heart of the country, with a long, branching shoreline that follows the old river valleys. Its own surface covers several thousand square kilometres, and most of its catchment lies outside Ghana.
The lake changed the map of Ghana. It cut old roads and created new fishing towns, ferry routes and islands. It also flooded forests whose dead trees still stand beneath the water, a danger to boats to this day.
Volta Lake excursionsOn hoinghana.com. Digya National ParkOn the lake's western shore, on ghana-net.com.The flooding displaced around 80,000 people from hundreds of villages. They were moved into new resettlement towns, often with poor land, badly built houses and broken promises of compensation. Many communities never recovered what they lost. Waterborne diseases such as bilharzia spread along the new shoreline.
Today the lake carries a darker story too: children working in the fishing industry, many sent or trafficked from poor families elsewhere, diving to free nets snagged on the drowned trees. It is a problem Ghana's government and charities have fought for years, and not yet solved.
Akosombo is still one of Ghana's main power sources, alongside the smaller Kpong Dam downstream and the Bui Dam on the Black Volta. When rainfall is poor and the lake level falls, generation drops, and Ghanaians feel it in power cuts, known as "dumsor". The dam is operated by the Volta River Authority.
Preserving one of Ghana's greatest industrial heritage sitesOn ghanamuseums.com.Akosombo is about two to three hours by road from Accra, an easy day trip or a relaxed overnight stay. The town sits in green hills above the river, cooler and calmer than the capital.
Day trips from Accra to the dam and the lake, and longer tours into the Volta hills. Entrance fees are included in the tour price. Tips for your guide and driver are not included, but they are always welcome.