Dagara people
Encyclopedia
The Dagaaba people) are an ethnic group in the West Africa
n nations of Ghana
and Burkina Faso
. They speak the Dagaare language
, made up of the related Northern Dagaare language, Southern Dagaare language, a number of sub dialects. They are related to the Birifor people and the Dagaare Diola. The language is collectively known as Dagaare (also spelled Dagare, Dagari, Dagarti, Dagaran or, Dagao) and historically some non-natives have taken this as the name of the people. One historian, describing the former usage of "Dagarti" to refer to this community by colonials, writes : "The name 'Dagarti' appears to have been coined by the first Europeans to visit the region, from the vernacular root dagaa. Correctly 'Dagari' is the name of the language, 'Dagaaba' or 'Dagara' that of the people, and 'Dagaw' or 'Dagawie' that of the land."
. The Northern Dagaare speakers, with an estimated population of 388,000 (in 2001) live primarily in Ioba Province, but also in Poni, Bougouriba, Sissili, and Mouhoun
provinces. In Ghana, several waves of internal migration, beginning in at least the late 19th century and spiking in the 1980s, have brought a sizable Dagaaba population to towns in the southern part of the nation, notably Brong Ahafo Region. In modern Ghana, the Dagaaba homeland of the Upper West Region
includes the Districts
and towns of Nandom, Lawra
, Jirapa, Kaleo, Nadowli, Daffiema and Hamile
. Large communities are also found in the towns of Wa
, Bogda
, Babile, Tuna, and Nyoli.
region in the fourteenth century CE. They are believed to have further migrated to the lower northern part of the region in the seventeenth century. From well before the appearance of Europeans, the Dagaaba lived in small scale agricultural communities, not centralised into any large state like structure. Ethnological studies point to oral literature which tells that the Dagaaba periodically, and ultimately successfully, resisted attempts at conquest by states in the south of modern Ghana
, as well as the Kingdoms of Dagbon, Mamprugu and Gonja in the north. One thesis based on oral evidence is that the Dagaaba formed as a break away faction of Dagbon under Na Nyanse. The colonial borders, demarcated during the Scramble for Africa
, placed them in northwestern Ghana
and southern Burkina Faso
, as well as small populations in Côte d'Ivoire
.
. The later, in alliance with the Wassoulou Empire
of Diola Samory Toure, conquered much of Dagawie in the late 1890s, under the generalship of Sarankye Mori.
performs rituals at the sacred market centres, and the gara dana or wie sob who is ritual leader among hunting societies. These remain living forms of community in much of Dagaaba society, and influence, among other things, the community perception of land as held in spiritual custodianship, and different community resources falling under the custodianship of different authorities, lineages, and/or spiritual forces.
Until the latter part of the nineteenth century when institutional chieftaincy evolved (and was latter imposed by colonial administration), broader Dagaaba communities functioned under a system of councils of elders.
Some Dagaaba communities maintain traditional ceremonial chieftainships, sometimes contesting. As recently as 2006 the "Council of Elders" of the Dagaaba community of Ghana attempted to unite various factions with the appointment of Naa Franklin Suantah, Principal Librarian of the Saint Louis Training College of Kumasi
as chief of the Dagaaba community in Ghana.
and Christianity
. The Ghanaian Dagaaba have traditionally had a Cousinage/Joking relationship
with the Frafra (Gurunsi
) people.
, a de facto boundary of Dagaaba lands. Because the communities are found along historic coast-to-Sahel
trade routes, trade has long been an important occupation, but largely in local goods. Markets in larger towns are on Sundays, with others on a six day cycle.
Some contemporary Dagaaba communities of northern Ghana are notable as the last West African communities to still use Cowrie shells as currency, alongside the modern Ghanaian cedi
. Cowrie are used not only for traditional ornamental and ceremonial purposes (as other West African communities do), but also as an inflation proof form of internal savings and as a safe medium to trade across national (and currency) boundaries which may divide Dagaaba communities.
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
n nations of Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
and Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
. They speak the Dagaare language
Dagaare language
Dagaare is the maternal language of the Dagaaba people in Ghana and Burkina Faso. It has been described as a dialect continuum that also includes Waale and Birifor.Ethnologue divides Dagaare into three languages:...
, made up of the related Northern Dagaare language, Southern Dagaare language, a number of sub dialects. They are related to the Birifor people and the Dagaare Diola. The language is collectively known as Dagaare (also spelled Dagare, Dagari, Dagarti, Dagaran or, Dagao) and historically some non-natives have taken this as the name of the people. One historian, describing the former usage of "Dagarti" to refer to this community by colonials, writes : "The name 'Dagarti' appears to have been coined by the first Europeans to visit the region, from the vernacular root dagaa. Correctly 'Dagari' is the name of the language, 'Dagaaba' or 'Dagara' that of the people, and 'Dagaw' or 'Dagawie' that of the land."
Geographic spread
Although sometimes divided into Northern and Southern Dagaare speakers, their combined population was estimated in 2003 at over one million spread across the Northwest corner of Ghana and Sud-Ouest Region in Southwestern Burkina Faso. The Southern Dagaare are a people of around 700,000 living in the western part of Upper West RegionUpper West Region
The Upper West Region of Ghana is located in the northwestern corner of the country and is bordered by Burkina Faso to the north. The capital and largest city is Wa. Other towns include Nandom, Daffiema, Jirapa, Kaleo, Nadowli, Lawra and Tumu....
. The Northern Dagaare speakers, with an estimated population of 388,000 (in 2001) live primarily in Ioba Province, but also in Poni, Bougouriba, Sissili, and Mouhoun
Mouhoun Province
Mouhoun is one of the 45 provinces of Burkina Faso and is in Boucle du Mouhoun Region. The capital of Mouhoun is Dédougou.Most people in the province live in rural areas; 260,295 Burkinabé live in the countryside with only 37,793 people residing in urban areas...
provinces. In Ghana, several waves of internal migration, beginning in at least the late 19th century and spiking in the 1980s, have brought a sizable Dagaaba population to towns in the southern part of the nation, notably Brong Ahafo Region. In modern Ghana, the Dagaaba homeland of the Upper West Region
Upper West Region
The Upper West Region of Ghana is located in the northwestern corner of the country and is bordered by Burkina Faso to the north. The capital and largest city is Wa. Other towns include Nandom, Daffiema, Jirapa, Kaleo, Nadowli, Lawra and Tumu....
includes the Districts
Districts of Ghana
||The Districts of Ghana are second-level administrative subdivisions of Ghana, below the level of region.The districts of Ghana were re-organized in 1988/1989 in an attempt to decentralize the government and to combat the rampant corruption amongst officials...
and towns of Nandom, Lawra
Lawra
Lawra is a town in Upper West Region, north western Ghana. It is known for its musical instrument manufacture, and for the Kobine harvest festival with important dancing and musical events....
, Jirapa, Kaleo, Nadowli, Daffiema and Hamile
Hamile
Hamile is a town in far northwestern Ghana, not far from the border with Burkina Faso.- Transport :In July 2007, contracts were made for the construction of a railway extension to this town.- External links :...
. Large communities are also found in the towns of Wa
Wa, Ghana
Wa is the capital of the Upper West Region of Ghana and is the main city of the Wala people. The majority of the inhabitants are Muslim. It is the seat of the Wa-Na, the Paramount Chief of the Wala traditional area. Features of the town include several mosques, the Wa-Na Palace, a museum and a...
, Bogda
Bogda
Bogda is a commune in Timiş County, Romania. It is composed of six villages: Altringen, Bogda, Buzad, Charlottenburg, Comeat and Sintar....
, Babile, Tuna, and Nyoli.
History
The source of Dagaaba communities in the pre colonial era remain a point of debate. The evidence of oral tradition is that the Dagaaba are an outgrowth of the Mole-Dagbani group which migrated to the semi-arid SahelSahel
The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....
region in the fourteenth century CE. They are believed to have further migrated to the lower northern part of the region in the seventeenth century. From well before the appearance of Europeans, the Dagaaba lived in small scale agricultural communities, not centralised into any large state like structure. Ethnological studies point to oral literature which tells that the Dagaaba periodically, and ultimately successfully, resisted attempts at conquest by states in the south of modern Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, as well as the Kingdoms of Dagbon, Mamprugu and Gonja in the north. One thesis based on oral evidence is that the Dagaaba formed as a break away faction of Dagbon under Na Nyanse. The colonial borders, demarcated during the Scramble for Africa
Scramble for Africa
The Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race for Africa or Partition of Africa was a process of invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the New Imperialism period, between 1881 and World War I in 1914...
, placed them in northwestern Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
and southern Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
, as well as small populations in Côte d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
.
Extra-community relations
Dagaaba communities have occasionally come into conflict with neighbouring groups, especially over land rights, as recently as the 1980s with the Sisala people and at earlier times with the Wala peopleWala people
The Wala live in Upper West Region of Ghana.Wala's vibrant costumes are made in Ghana by a local tailor. The type of costume identifies the tribe of a person or group and what region in Ghana they are from. The dance costumes are designed by the group to suit the dance. The raffia skirt is a...
. The later, in alliance with the Wassoulou Empire
Wassoulou Empire
The Wassoulou Empire, sometimes referred to as the Mandinka Empire, was a short-lived empire of West Africa built from the conquests of Dyula ruler Samori Ture and destroyed by the French colonial army....
of Diola Samory Toure, conquered much of Dagawie in the late 1890s, under the generalship of Sarankye Mori.
Society
Within the Dagawie homelands, the Dagaaba have traditionally formed sedentary agricultural communities. Modern Dagaaba lineages consist of ten clans encompassing over one million people.Traditional polities
Traditional Dagaaba communities are based on the "Yir" subclan or household group, a series of which are clustered into the "Tengan", an earth deity shrine area. The Tengan system, a constellation of roles usually inherited within the same household group, is called the tendaalun. The head of these shrine area systems, the tengan sob (sometimes tindana) fulfilled the role of community elder and priest, along with the tengan dem, the ritual custodian and maintainer of the ritual center. Other priestly/elder roles within the tendaalun include the suo sob who performs ritual animal slaughter to the earth deity, the zongmogre whoperforms rituals at the sacred market centres, and the gara dana or wie sob who is ritual leader among hunting societies. These remain living forms of community in much of Dagaaba society, and influence, among other things, the community perception of land as held in spiritual custodianship, and different community resources falling under the custodianship of different authorities, lineages, and/or spiritual forces.
Until the latter part of the nineteenth century when institutional chieftaincy evolved (and was latter imposed by colonial administration), broader Dagaaba communities functioned under a system of councils of elders.
Some Dagaaba communities maintain traditional ceremonial chieftainships, sometimes contesting. As recently as 2006 the "Council of Elders" of the Dagaaba community of Ghana attempted to unite various factions with the appointment of Naa Franklin Suantah, Principal Librarian of the Saint Louis Training College of Kumasi
Kumasi
Kumasi is a city in southern central Ghana's Ashanti region. It is located near Lake Bosomtwe, in the Rain Forest Region about northwest of Accra. Kumasi is approximately north of the Equator and north of the Gulf of Guinea...
as chief of the Dagaaba community in Ghana.
Culture
Dagaaba communities historically have practiced Traditional religions, as well as IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. The Ghanaian Dagaaba have traditionally had a Cousinage/Joking relationship
Joking relationship
A joking relationship is a term applied by anthropologists to the institutionalised form of interaction between certain pairs of people in some societies. Analysed by British social anthropologist Alfred Radcliffe-Brown in 1940, it describes a kind of ritualised banter that takes place, for example...
with the Frafra (Gurunsi
Gurunsi
The Gurunsi are a set of ethnic groups inhabiting northern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso.-Pre-Colonial History and Origins:Oral traditions of the Gurunsi hold that they originated from the western Sudan near Lake Chad. While it is unknown when the migration occurred, it is believed that the...
) people.
Economics
Communities in Dagaaba homelands remain primarily small scale agricultural, with family farming plots tilled by the family themselves. In the modern era, off-farm wage income is often used to supplement trade icncome and subsistence from farming. Fishing communities of Dagaaba persist along the Black VoltaBlack Volta
Black Volta or Mouhoun is a river of western Africa rising in western Burkina Faso and flowing about 1,352 km to the White Volta in Ghana. The Black Volta forms a small part of the boundary between Ghana and Ivory Coast, and also a section of border between Ghana and Burkina Faso.-See also:*Deux...
, a de facto boundary of Dagaaba lands. Because the communities are found along historic coast-to-Sahel
Sahel
The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....
trade routes, trade has long been an important occupation, but largely in local goods. Markets in larger towns are on Sundays, with others on a six day cycle.
Some contemporary Dagaaba communities of northern Ghana are notable as the last West African communities to still use Cowrie shells as currency, alongside the modern Ghanaian cedi
Ghanaian cedi
The Ghana Cedi is the unit of currency of Ghana. The word "cedi" is derived from the Akan word for cowry shell. The Ghana cedi was introduced on 3 July 2007 and is equal to 10,000 old cedis...
. Cowrie are used not only for traditional ornamental and ceremonial purposes (as other West African communities do), but also as an inflation proof form of internal savings and as a safe medium to trade across national (and currency) boundaries which may divide Dagaaba communities.
Oral literature
Oral literature has a long tradition with Dagaaba communities, and remains a living vehicle of education and acculturation in Dagaaba society.Religion
The Dagara tribe of West Central Africa successfully categorize their people into five different categories: fire, water, mineral, earth and nature. These are shown above on the African Wheel with the colors the Dagara normally associate with each type. Each of the five types of people play a very specific role. Every person born into this world comes from one of these categories in order to help fulfill the kind of function that that category of people is supposed to fulfill in order to keep the community together.External links
- Bibliography of Dagaare Studies, compiled by Dr. Adams B. Bodomo, retrieved 2009-02-12.
- Journal of Dagaare Studies, University of Hong Kong, ISSN 1608-0661. Abstracts of 6 issues in 6 volumes, 2001–2006, retrieved 2009-02-12.