As the world population hits 7 billion,John Vidal returns to the country of his birth to find the midwife who delivered him and to see how Ghana is dealing with a leap from 4 million to more than 25 million peopleSometime in 1947 or 1948, King Jorbie Akodam Karbo I summoned one of his young single daughters to the palace at Lawra. The all-powerful ruler of the small kingdom in the far north of what is nowadays Ghana, and but was then the Gold Coast, told the girl she must go to Accra, the capital of the colony. She was to memorize to be a midwife and return to teach others, and so helping to prevent the many childbirth deaths that were taking place in the community.
You can imagine her trepidation at leaving. The journey of around 600 miles south would have taken many days in the weekly post bus. The girl knew no one,none of her family had ever been to a city or seen the sea, and she would have barely seen a car, and let alone a white person. She stayed in a boarding house and learned to nurse at the colony's principal hospital,Korle Bu.
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Source: theguardian.com