Dagomba people

The Dagombas or Dagbamba are a Gur ethnic group of northern Ghana,[2] numbering more than 3.1 million people. The term Dagbamba is also used to refer to other descendants of Naa Gbewaa including the Mamprusi and Nanumba. They inhabit the Northern Region of Ghana in the Guinea savanna region. They speak the Dagbani language which belongs to the Mole-Dagbani sub-group of the Gur languages. There are more than 3 million native speakers of Dagbani. The Dagomba are historically related to the Mossi people. The Mossi Kingdoms were founded by Yennenga, a daughter of the founder of the Dagbon Kingdom, Naa Gbewaa. The Mohi/Mossi now have their homeland in central present-day Burkina Faso. Aside the Mossi, the Dagombas are the progenitors of the Bouna state of Ivory Coast, and the Dagaaba states of Upper West Region of Ghana. The homeland of the Dagomba is called Dagbon and now covers about 20,000 km² in area.

Naa Gbewaa is regarded as the founder of the Dagbon Kingdom. People existed in Dagbon long before the arrival of Naa Gbewaa. Gbewaa, and his descendants centralised the kingdom. Before Naa Gbewaa centralised the kingdom, there were decentralised states headed by the Tindaamba. Today, the Tindaamba still preserve the ancient Dagbon traditions that has been passed through the ages, leading traditional religious acts and solving problems of their constituents. Many Tindaamba are not appointed by the Yaa Naa, they are chosen by an oracle. However, they are subservient to Yaa Naa. Royalty in Dagbon is complex as it has evolved through the centuries. Dagomba are one of the ethnic groups with a sophisticated oral tradition woven around drums and other musical instruments. Thus, Dagbon history, until quite recently, has been passed down meticulously via oral tradition with drummers as professional griots known as Lunsi. According to oral tradition, the political history of Dagbon has its origin in the life story of a legend called Tohazie (translated as "red hunter").[3]

Dagomba culture is heavily influenced by Islam, brought to the region by Soninke (known as Wangara by Ghanaians) traders between the 12th and 15th centuries. Since the time of Naa Zangina, Islam has been the state religion and Islam seems to be growing rapidly ever since.[4] The reformist activities of Afa Anjura in the middle of the twentieth century caused entire communities to embrace the Islamic religion en masse. Inheritance in the Dagomba people is largely patrilineal, however, inheritance of certain Tindaamba is matrilineal. There are also female rulers with male subordinates such as the Gundo Naa and the Kpatu Naa. The Gundo Naa has vast land and head all female royals of Dagbon. Important festivals include the Damba, Bugum (fire festival) and the Islamic Eid festivals. The largest settlement of the Dagomba is Tamale, Ghana's third populous and the Northern Region's capital.

The Mossi and Dagomba states are among the great West African medieval empires. Beginning in the 12th century, they eventually ruled the lands of the entire northern Volta basin, which today includes all of northern Ghana and Burkina Faso. During their second northern expansion, the Mossi invasion reached eastern Maasina and Lake Débo c. 1400, Benka in c. 1433 and Walata in 1477-83 (these empires were in present-day Mali). According to Illiasu (1971) in his work The Origins of the Mossi-Dagomba states, the second period of the Mossi-Dagomba success came to an end with the restoration of Imperial Songhai power towards the close of the 15th century. Although the Mossi-Dagomba states have the same grandfather (Naa Gbewa), the Dagomba are traditionally regarded as "senior" to the Mossi states of Ouagadougou, Yatenga and Fada N'Gourma.