The social organization of the peoples of Northern Ghana is informed by patrilineal descent ideologies which differentiates these people from the Akans of Southern Ghana. There are however differences in the application of patrilineal norms. Corporate groups of kin or relatives exist whose members trace putative ties to common ancestors. Property rights and succession to traditional positions would be based largely on paternal ties. Sons succeed fathers or failing sons siblings succeed and inherit property. In some respects Northern peoples like the Dagomba and Gonja and a few others seem to accord more or less equal importance to relationships traced to maternal and paternal relatives. Among the Dagomba extended family groups have been identified which bring together individuals who are related by either maternal or paternal ties or a combination of both.
In many Northern Ghanaian communities marriages are exogamous and are forbidden between relatives. As a condition for the formalization of a marriage the bride or his family has to make transfers of prescribed goods and services to the parents and relatives of the bride. The quantum of goods and services and their types seem to vary between northern societies; in some communities the transfers are no more than symbolic. In some communities livestock were used and still continue to be used although this is being resented by would-be grooms.
Communities in Northern Ghana have known chieftaincy prior to the era of colonization. For peoples like the Dagomba, Mamprusi and Gonja the culture of chieftaincy goes far back in time to the 15th Century. From these sources chieftaincy as an institution has spread to other parts of the North either by persuasion as formerly acephalous peoples welcomed immigrant princes fleeing from dynastic disputes or by imposition. The British have also been responsible directly or indirectly for promoting chieftaincy in parts of the North where in pre-colonial times chiefs were either unknown or of not much importance. The Northern chief, it will be observed, sits on a pile of skins unlike his southern counterpart. It is therefore customary in Ghana to refer to the skin polities of the North where chiefs are ‘enskinned’ or enrobed rather then ‘enstooled’, as is the case in southern Ghana. In a number of respects Northern chieftaincy differs from what obtains in the south of the country. Succession is patilineal rather than matrilineal and among the Dagbomba peoples a person cannot succeed to a chiefly office that is higher than the one that his father once held in life. In a few communities (for example Gonja) offices equivalent to queen motherships were traditionally recognized but not in the majority of Northern communities. The office of magazia (a term of Hausa origin) is the local women’s leader. She is elected and need not have kinship connections to the chiefs. There are however female chiefs among the Dagomba and Mamprusi groups.
In many communities the office of tendaana (earthpriest) coexists with that of chief. It is suggested that earthpriestships predated the institution on chieftaincy in most parts of the North. While chiefly families do not claim any autochthonous status earthpriest lineages often do. Eathpriests are essentially priestly figures who supervise ritual activities concreted on the earth. In addition to their priestly duties or as a consequence, they usually serve land owners who apportion land for building and farming purposes. These rights have been taken over by chiefs in some communities.
The traditional religious beliefs still count for much among the peoples of the North. There is frequent recourse to the ancestors and the divinities in accounting for incidents in the lives of people. Sacrifices are made to invite the intercession of the ancestors and the local gods. It is even believed that humans can themselves through witchcraft harm their neighbours and kin. However, in some of the communities Islam has taken deep roots which date back to pre-colonial times. Islam is particularly strong among peoples like the Dagomba, Mamprusi, Gonja and Wala. Not only do we find people bearing Moslem names the recognized Moslem feasts such as Eid UL Adha and Eid UL Fitr are celebrated, even if the actual celebrations are not devoid of traditional non-Islamic features and people pray faithfully five times a day, and attend the mosque on Fridays. Islam was introduced via the trade that brought Hausa and Wangara traders to these parts. Where and when the ruling elites espoused Islam many of their subjects followed suit and Islam was on its way to becoming the religion of the state.
Christianity arrived in the decade that coloniasation was introduced in the North. Of the Christian dominations the Catholics seem to dominate in the North, particularly in the Upper Regions. It is worth noting that the centenary celebrations on the coming to the North of the White Fathers, a Catholic missionary society, are scheduled for 2006. The Catholics were able to establish a firm foothold here and it would appear that the colonial policy of reserving particular areas for particular religious denominations was a factor in the predominance of certain denominations in the area.
The Languages of Northern Ghana
One way of identifying the peoples of Northern Ghana is through the languages that they speak. Language can be viewed as a rough guide to ethnic differentiation. A people may speak the same or similar dialects of the same language yet not see themselves as one ethnic unit. Social and cultural differences as well as traditional enmities might divide such people despite shared language. In pre-colonial times it was possible for communities to speak similar dialects and yet not have a sense of common ethnic identity.
The peoples of the Northern Regions of Ghana speak a variety of related languages. However, in spite of the closeness of their languages they did not have the opportunity to develop a pan-Northern Ghanaian linguistic medium of communication among themselves. Therefore, even today these people use several languages including English (if they are educated literates), Hausa, (for those who have lived in the bigger Northern towns where Hausa trading communities had come into existence) and sometimes Twi, (for those who have lived in Southern Ghana) as media of wider communication. Within the Districts some local languages may serve as media of communication between people who do not share the same first language or mother tongue.
Most of the languages spoken indigenously in Northern Ghana have been classified as members of the “Gur” sub-family of languages. These languages are not however unrelated to other West African languages, since Gur itself is a branch of the North-Volta-Congo group of languages which together with the Kwa group (Southern Ghanaian languages belong to this family) and several others make up the Volta-Congo sub-branch of languages found mainly in West Africa. The Gur languages are not however exclusive to Northern Ghana; many of the languages spoken in the northern parts of Cote D’Ivoire, Togo and Benin are members of the Gur branch of languages. The linguistic relationship between some of the Northern Ghanaian languages and some languages spoken in Burkina Faso, such as Moore, is so close that we can talk of the existence of mutual intelligibility. However, not all Northern Ghanaian languages belong to Gur. A number of languages such as those spoken by the Gonja people (Ngbanyito), the Nchumuru, and the Nawuri people are Guang languages and as such fall within the Volta-Comoe sub-branch of the Kwa group of languages. Although the history of the Gonja people indicates a colonization of the vast area once occupied by the Gonja kingdom by a warrior group of Mende or Wangara origin, there are very few traces of the original language spoken by the invaders of the area who came from further north under the leadership of Jakpa. Anufo (Chokosi) spoken in the northern-east corner of the Northern Region around Chereponi in the Chere-Saboba District in fact a Bia language akin to Nzema and the like. These are thus closer to the Akan languages of southern Ghana than they are to any Northern Ghana languages.
Nevertheless and in spite of the linguistic differences and similarities, these people all feel ‘northern’ in every way, being united by history and geography. Their interrelationships in the past have been characterized by both friendship and kinship on the one hand and enmity and antagonism on the other. Powerful and better organized groups attempted in the past to extend territory at the expense of their unorganized neighbours. Today mutual suspicions still obtain between groups. This has sometimes led to conflicts such as those that have bedeviled Nanumba-Konkomba co-existence in recent times. In recent times with the creation of a sense of wider ethnicity and nationality among once acephalous people these peoples have tended to contest the overlordship of the centrally organized peoples like the Dagomba, Gonja and Nanumba over them. Past friendships and alliance such as those that existed between the Dagbamba (Nanumba, Dagomba and Mamprusi) peoples have tended to be upheld to date. However, some formerly antagonistic peoples have since reconciled and transformed their antagonism into friendships, even quasi-kinships. For example, Gonja and Dagomba formerly arch-enemies now have a joking relationship. Peoples who probably had no awareness of kinship now realizing their connectedness have established friends and joking relationships. Sisala and Kasena, both speakers of Grusi have a joking relationship just as Dagaba people have not only institutionalized a joking relationship they now have the friendship games in Accra.
If in the absence of a better criterion for the sub-classification of the peoples of Northern Ghana, we choose to adopt a language-based scheme, then the most widespread grouping of Northern Ghanaian people would be the speakers of that group of languages commonly identified as Moore-Gurma or Oti-Volta. Within this group are the Dagbamba peoples. |