Gonja, the Mandingoes of Ghana

By Solomon Salifu Tampuri

The book traces the journey of the people of Gonja from their original home in the ancient Songhai Empire to their present location in the northern region of the Republic of Ghana.

Gonja was once an important kingdom before the entire land mass known today as Ghana was colonised and brought under British rule. An important feature of this book is that it also touches on the history and relationships of the neighbours of Gonja including the Dagomba and other tribes in the northern region and the other parts of Ghana.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Oct 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524593971

Solomon Salifu Tampuri

Solomon Salifu Tampuri is a Gonja royal and an executive member of the Gonjaland Association of UK and Ireland. He was born in Ghana where he had his primary and secondary education. He continued his education in the United Kingdom. He read law at University of Greenwich and the Inns of Court School of law in London. Solomon was called to the English Bar in July 2009 by the Hon. Society of Middle Temple. He is presently a practicing lawyer in London. Although, this is first book and he is already working on his second. Solomon enjoys reading, travelling and meeting people of different cultures. Solomn is greatly indebted to J.A. Braimah, HH Tomlinson, Osafroadu Amankwantia and the pioneers, veteran researchers and writers of the history of Ghana and Gonjas.

Book preview

GONJA

The Mandingoes of Ghana

SOLOMON SALIFU TAMPURI

Copyright © 2016 by Solomon Salifu Tampuri

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016914120

ISBN:           Hardcover                 978-1-5245-9396-4

                     Softcover                   978-1-5245-9398-8

                       eBook                       978-1-5245-9397-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 11/01/2016

Xlibris

800-056-3182

www.Xlibrispublishing.co.uk

740403

This book is dedicated to my father, Mr. Samuel Seidu Abudulai Tampuri (Kalbawura), a humble man of integrity, who lived in service to his tribe and country

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

—George Orwell

If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.

—Michael Crichton

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1:     The People

Chapter 2:     Whence Came the Gonjas?

Chapter 3:     The Land of the Akans

Chapter 4:     The Death of Askia Daoud and the Fall of Songhai (1582–1620)

Chapter 5:     The Northern Territory before

the Arrival of the Gonjas

Chapter 6:     Invasion and Conquest

Chapter 7:     The Death of Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa

Chapter 8:     Gonjaland after the Death of Ndewura Jakpa

Chapter 9:     Descendants of Ndewura Jakpa

Chapter 10:   Installing a Yagbonwura (King of Gonjas)

Chapter 11:   Reformation of the Office of Yagbonwura

(1890–Present)

Chapter 12:   Gonja and the Islamic Religion

Chapter 13:   Gonjas and the Slave Trade

Chapter 14:   The Neighbours of Gonja

Chapter 15:   The British Intervention and the Colonial

Influence of Gonjaland

Chapter 16:   Yagbonwura Mahama Dangbonga (1910–1937)

Chapter 17:   The Gonja Rebellion under Mahama Dangbonga

Chapter 18:   Education in Gonjaland

Chapter 19:   Infrastructure in Gonjaland and the Railway

that never was

Chapter 20:   The Mole National Park

Acknowledgments

References

Maps and Tables

List of Maps

1. The Songhai Empire

2. Map of Ghana

3. Map of the Northern Region

4. A Map of the Proposed Railway Routes

5. An image of the Mole National Park

Table

6. Table of Yagbonwuras (Kings of Gonjaland)

45983.png45991.png

INTRODUCTION

This book tells the story of the people of Gonja, who refer to themselves as Ngbanye. The Gonjas are a tribe in the Northern Region of modern-day Ghana and one of the Guan-speaking groups of the country. The people should not, therefore, be confused with the town or people of Gonja in the region of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, East Africa.

The Guan people are said to be the oldest inhabitants of Ghana, found in almost all corners of the country; generally, they include such tribes as the Anum, Boso, Larteh, and Kyerepong in the Eastern Region; the Akpafu/Lolobi, Buem, Nkonya, Likpe, and Logba in the Volta Region; and also the Effutu, Awutu, and Senya in the Winneba and Bawjiase areas of the Central Region. The Gonjas are the only known Guan-speaking tribe in the Northern Region of Ghana, and probably the last to arrive in that territory.

Gonja was once an important kingdom before the land mass known today as Ghana was colonised and brought under British rule. This book traces the tribe’s journey from their original home in the ancient Songhai Empire to their present location in the Northern Region of the Republic of Ghana. The people of Gonja have a massive and intricate story, which, until the twentieth century, was written in Arabic or handed down by word of mouth.

I hatched the idea of writing a short history of the Gonja tribe in the winter of 2013, when my interactions with the Gonja community in Europe and the diaspora revealed that, apart from the common knowledge that Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa established the Gonja Kingdom through conquest, many Gonjas, especially those living outside of Ghana and those born in the diaspora, have very little knowledge of their history as a people.

Answers as to where Gonjas actually came from, how we ended up where we are now, and how we got our name Gonja are relatively unknown to many of my kinsmen in the diaspora. Part of the problem has to do with our educational system in Ghana, which teaches the Eurocentric version of our history. Most history books about Ghana either focus on the Ashanti Kingdom and how the Ashantis bravely stood up against the Europeans or begin and end with the British’s colonisation of the country and subsequent grant of independence. However, more than twenty other important tribes are in the country, and their history and stories have, if anything, been relegated to the background – to oral histories and anthropological research materials at various universities. Perhaps this is because most of these other tribes and clans did not have any direct or dramatic dealings with the Europeans, such as did the tribes of the coastal states and Ashanti.

The outside world has always viewed Ghana with admiration, perceiving Ghanaians as peace-loving, warm, and welcoming people. Anyhow, underneath this warm, receptive nature lie some ethnic rivalries that go back centuries. For example, not until long-standing grievances over landownership and the carte blanche of chiefs resulted in a full-blown war between the Konkomba tribe and the allied tribes of Nanumba, Dagomba, and Gonja – which claimed more than 2,000 lives and displaced another 150,000 people in February 1994 – did people show interest in the social organisations of Northern Ghana’s tribes.

I particularly feel quite privileged to have listened to my father proudly and passionately tell the story of the Gonjas, our struggles, and our achievements and his hopes for the tribe’s future. As a Gonja of royal blood, I feel it is only morally right that I make available such little knowledge I have of my people to as wide an audience as I can reach. If the Gonjas of this generation who speak and understand the customs and practices of the tribe have no grasp on our history, then what will become of our children and those who shall come after them? It appears that some of these children born in the diaspora and other parts of the world are not taught to speak the Gonja language. The Gonja culture, beliefs, and way of life are completely alien to them.

These concerns inspired the writing of this book. I had these children and unborn children of Gonjaland in mind when I typed the first words, and I sincerely hope that anyone who flicks through the book’s pages will find it an interesting read and a good source of basic information about the people of Gonja. I also hope that it will inspire others to tell their own stories to the world, no matter how trivial they may consider them. As my father often quotes from his favourite poem, Desiderata, ‘and listen to others, / even the dull and the ignorant; / they too have their story’. Everyone has a story!

As much as I wanted to answer the relevant questions I posed earlier as accurately as possible in this book, I soon discovered, after speaking to a few experts on the subject, that there are different versions of the same story, depending on who is telling it. This was the case until I visited Bole, my hometown, and had the opportunity to rummage through my late father’s file of papers and documents going back six or more decades. It was then I stumbled upon a handwritten manuscript titled The History of Gonja. He had handwritten it himself, albeit without references. I had no way of establishing the veracity of his story. However, knowing how diligent and robust my father could be when it came to facts and figures, I am certain he went to great lengths in putting together his little manuscript about the history of his people. Perhaps it was his own way of documenting the history of his people as it was handed down to him.

My father was born Abdulai Seidu and nicknamed Tampuri by a Mamprusi friend of his father. He comes from the Safo-pe or Gbondape Royal Gate of Bole. He had his early education at the Gonja Native Authority Primary School, Salaga in 1938. From where he continued his studies at the Government Senior Middle Boarding (now Tamale Secondary School) from 1942 to 1945. He was trained in Administration, Finance and accounts including Judicial activities such as Court registration and the then Gold Coast Cap 9 and Cap 84 in Damongo. He started work immediately upon completion.

He was employed by the Gonja Native Authority as a clerk and worked at the Kpembe Native Authority office in 1947 until 1949 when he was moved to the Tuluwe Division as the clerk in charge and in 1951 he was transferred to the Bole Division of the Native Authority and back to Kpembe in 1952.

In 1954, he attended the Local Government Training School in Tamale and in Accra and after successfully completing his studies he was posted to Kusawgu local Council as the clerk to the Council. In 1958 he was made the treasurer for the Gonja Volta District Council. This was later dissolved and the present Eastern and Western District Councils were established in Gonja. In 1962 he was appointed the Clerk to Damongo Local Council until 01st February 1963 when he resigned his position.

He enrolled with the Bennett College in Sheffield, United Kingdom and undertook several overseas courses in various disciplines.

He served as the Secretary for the Progress Party in Western and Eastern Constituencies in the Gonja District until the Party won the General elections in 1969.

In 1972 the Public Services Commission appointed him the District Organiser for National Service Corps. The National Service Corps was re-named the Rural Development. He remained with the Rural development until 1985 when he retired from active service.

Two years later in 1987 he was elected the Secretary for Ghana Government Pensioners Association.

In 1993 he was enskinned the Chief of Kalba and so decided to resign his position as the Secretary of the Association.

He was chief of Kalba until his death on 24th December 2006. He is buried in Bole.

My outside efforts to find records on Gonja history, customs, and usages proved extremely difficult. Several writers have touched on the subject, although often as part of the history of the country or the Northern Region. The only known, or perhaps most popular, writer on the history of the Gonja people is the late Yagbonwura Timu, known in his private life as Hon. J. A. Braimah. Esther N. Goody (1973), in her book Contexts of Kinship: An Essay in the Family Sociology of the Gonja of Northern Ghana, also briefly touches on the history of Gonjas, but a large part of her work focuses on kinship in Gonja.

My research and efforts to verify the accuracy of my father’s manuscript took me to Bole, Damongo, Daboya, Buipe, and other Gonja towns and villages, where I began by eliciting information on the history of Gonjas from the tribe’s older generation. The likes of my paternal uncle, Yahaya Mahama (Yilpalawura); my cousin Yahaya Gbandawura (Jangbuluguwura of Daboya); and many others were very helpful. They not only told me interesting stories, but they also helped provide useful information and clarification on some of our history’s ambiguities. For example, Gonjas will often address all kin as either ‘elder sibling’ (Nda) or ‘younger sibling’ (Nsupo); this includes