It is believed that some of the ethnic groups that make up Ghana today immigrated to Ghana from these earlier empires, and the ethnic and linguistic connections to the countries of the Sahel/Sahara belt remain very strong. Many ethnic groups such as Hausa, Fulani and Arabs were active as pastoralists or traders and established themselves in Northern Ghana and the Ashanti Region (Peil, 1974). Gold, ivory, and slaves were the first items traded with the rest of the world through the initial European contacts.