Plans are afoot to replace the historic Ghanaian fishing port of Jamestown with a Chinese-backed mechanised factory.

Many African politicians have found it hard to resist meddling in their countries' football. The latest example is Ghana's President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, just weeks ahead of the start of the 32nd Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) being hosted by Egypt. He recently waded into the politics of the national team captaincy to mediate a conflict that had exploded into the Ghanaian public discussion.

Ghana recently joined only a handful of countries in Africa to introduce the use of pictures in health warnings on tobacco products. The other countries include Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, Senegal and Seychelles.

In December 2018, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi was removed from the University of Ghana's campus in response to protests from students and staff. They argued that the Indian activist had been a racist who denigrated black Africans. Professor Ernest Aryeetey was the university's Vice-Chancellor when the statue was erected. Here, he explains how the university made the decision to accept the statue, a gift from the Indian government, in 2016.

Backpacking emerged in the 1970s as a low cost form of travel that allowed particularly young people to explore the world without spending too much money.

The US has announced it is ready to support Ghana to deal with the issue of political vigilantism - a growing threat to peace and security in the country. The Conversation Africa's Moina Spooner spoke to Justice Tankebe about the phenomenon and what can be done to address it.

Culture plays a big role in what we feel, how we identify these feelings and what we do to deal with our emotions. So, those raised in more "macho" cultures may be more likely to suppress emotions like sadness or fear.

Delta environments are low-lying and highly vulnerable to flooding and erosion by ocean waves. And these hazards are likely to increase as the world's climate changes and sea levels rise. Monitoring these hazards, and their impacts, is very important to develop strategies and protect communities living close to deltas.

If you want to know how a country views mental illness, take a look at the way its media reports on the issue. That is the view of some scholars who argue that newspapers, television and radio influence negative ideas about mental health. Others suggest it's the other way around: the media merely reflects what society already believes.

As a Ghanaian archaeologist, I have been conducting research at Christiansborg Castle in Accra, Ghana. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the castle is a former seventeenth century trading post, colonial Danish and British seat of government, and Office of the President of the Republic of Ghana. Today, it's known in local parlance as simply "Osu Castle" or "The Castle".

Student protests in Ghana resulted in the temporary closure of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. The cause: police use of force in the arrest of students following a vigil to protest the possibility of all-male halls becoming mixed.

Ghana has a serious flood problem. Over about 50 years, 4 million people have been affected by floods, resulting in economic damage exceeding USD$780 million. At least one major flood disaster has occurred every year over the past 10 years.

Informal settlements continue to remain a significant component of many cities in the developing world. UN Habitat describes them as lacking security of tenure, not having durable housing and short of basic services. Globally, almost one billion people are hosted in informal settlements. This is expected to increase to 1.5 billion by 2020.

For the past eight years at the end of every August the James Town suburb of Ghana's capital Accra has been taken over by the Chale Wote street art festival. During the festival, thousands of people, including local celebrities, artists, musicians, boxers and everyday revellers, move up and down the streets mostly by foot and at times on roller skates or unicycles.

There's rapid urbanisation happening across Africa. But the rural population hasn't stopped growing. In fact, Africa is considered a rural continent - only 43% of its total population lives in cities and towns.

The use of non-biomedical methods to treat mental disorders in developing countries, like Ghana, has long been acknowledged. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that about 80% of people who need mental health care in developing countries go to indigenous or faith healers for care.

Genetic technologies are poised to change the world. Want to eradicate a human disease such as cystic fibrosis or improve a person's ability to run impossible distances or lift unimaginable weights? This may be possible in the future by using something called CRISPR to edit an organism's genetic makeup. How about rapidly sequencing a newborn's genome, similar to an early scene in the 1997 movie Gattaca? Next-generation sequencing may make this fiction a reality.

Genetic technologies are poised to change the world. Want to eradicate a human disease such as cystic fibrosis or improve a person's ability to run impossible distances or lift unimaginable weights? This may be possible in the future by using something called CRISPR to edit an organism's genetic makeup. How about rapidly sequencing a newborn's genome, similar to an early scene in the 1997 movie Gattaca? Next-generation sequencing may make this fiction a reality.

Kofi Annan (80) was an important historical figure who played a critical role in many key events of the 1990s and 2000s. His death is therefore an opportunity to both celebrate his life and to begin honestly assessing his contributions to the world.

Rapid advances in space technology mean that space is no longer simply a stargazer's paradise.