[tz] [PROPOSED] Add notes about Ghana confusion

Paul Eggert eggert at cs.ucla.edu
Tue Jan 30 08:15:36 UTC 2018


* africa (Ghana): Add commentary about what little is known about
time near Accra from 1919 through 1942.  Every source seems to
differ.  For now, leave the data alone.  It would be nice if
someone could get to the bottom of this.
---
 africa | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++------
 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/africa b/africa
index 02115ad..6e86d21 100644
--- a/africa
+++ b/africa
@@ -370,13 +370,32 @@ Zone	Africa/Cairo	2:05:09 -	LMT	1900 Oct
 # See Africa/Abidjan.
 
 # Ghana
-# Rule	NAME	FROM	TO	TYPE	IN	ON	AT	SAVE	LETTER/S
+
+# From Paul Eggert (2019-01-30):
 # Whitman says DST was observed from 1931 to "the present";
-# Shanks & Pottenger say 1936 to 1942;
-# and September 1 to January 1 is given by:
-# Scott Keltie J, Epstein M (eds), The Statesman's Year-Book,
-# 57th ed. Macmillan, London (1920), OCLC 609408015, pp xxviii.
-# For lack of better info, assume DST was observed from 1920 to 1942.
+# Shanks & Pottenger say 1936 to 1942 with 20 minutes of DST,
+# with transitions on 09-01 and 12-31 at 00:00.
+# Page 33 of Parish GCB, Colonial Reports - Annual. No. 1066. Gold
+# Coast. Report for 1919. (March 1921), OCLC 784024077
+# http://libsysdigi.library.illinois.edu/ilharvest/africana/books2011-05/5530214/5530214_1919/5530214_1919_opt.pdf
+# lists the Determination of the Time Ordinance, 1919, No. 18,
+# "to advance the time observed locally by the space of twenty minutes
+# during the last four months of each year; the object in view being
+# to extend during those months the period of daylight-time available
+# for evening recreation after office hours."
+# Vanessa Ogle, The Global Transformation of Time, 1870-1950 (2015), p 33,
+# writes "In 1919, the Gold Coast (Ghana as of 1957) made Greenwich
+# time its legal time and simultaneously legalized a summer time of
+# UTC - 00:20 minutes from March to October."; a footnote lists
+# the ordinance as being dated 1919-11-24.
+# The Crown Colonist, Volume 12 (1942), p 176, says "the Government
+# intend advancing Gold Coast time half an hour ahead of G.M.T.
+# The actual date of the alteration has not yet been announced."
+# These sources are incomplete and contradictory.  Possibly what is
+# now Ghana observed different DST regimes in different years.  For
+# lack of better info, use Shanks except treat the minus sign as a
+# typo, and assume DST started in 1920 not 1936.
+# Rule	NAME	FROM	TO	TYPE	IN	ON	AT	SAVE	LETTER/S
 Rule	Ghana	1920	1942	-	Sep	 1	0:00	0:20	GHST
 Rule	Ghana	1920	1942	-	Dec	31	0:00	0	GMT
 # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
-- 
2.14.3



More information about the tz mailing list