The Dagaaba people (singular Dagao, and, in northern dialects, for both plural and singular) are an ethnic group located north of the convergence of Ghana, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. They speak the Dagaare language, made up of Northern Dagara and Dagaari Dioula, both mainly spoken in Burkina Faso, as well as Southern Dagaare which is mainly spoken in Ghana. In northern areas, both the language and the people are referred to as . They are related to the Birifor people and the Dagaare Diola. 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 'Dagaari' 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 The Southern Dagaare are a people of around 700,000 living in the western part of Upper West Region. In modern Ghana, the Dagaaba homeland of the Upper West Region includes the Districts and towns of Nandom, Lawra, Jirapa, Kaleo, Papu, Nadowli, Daffiama, Wechiau and Hamile. Large communities are also found in the towns of Wa, Bogda, Babile, Tuna, Han, Zambo, Ghana, 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 Sahel 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. The colonial borders, demarcated during the Scramble for Africa, placed them in northwestern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso, as well as small populations in Ivory Coast.

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 people. The latter, in alliance with the Wassoulou Empire of Diola Samory Toure, conquered much of Dagawie in the late 1890s, under the generalship of Sarankye Mori but was later defeated by the kaleo naa

Some of the southernmost Dagaaba villages were in the early 1890s under the authority of the Kingdom of Wala but then rebelled in 1894 and asserted their independence. They were however restored to the domains of the Wala Native Authority by the British in 1933.

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 politics

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 who 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 later imposed by colonial administration), broader Dagaaba communities functioned under a system of councils of elders.

Culture

The Dagaaba, before the influence of the colonialist, were self-reliant in iron production and were very successful in mixed crops farming. They also developed sophisticated musical instruments including gyle (xylophones).

The Dagaaba people are well known

in a local beer making known as dāā Dagadāā, popularly called Pito.

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 income and subsistence from farming. Fishing communities of Dagaaba persist along the Black Volta, 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.

Religion

Dagaaba communities historically have practiced Traditional religions, as well as Islam and Christianity.

References

  • Constancio Nakuma. An Introduction to the Dagaare Language. on DagaareLinguists' HomePage, update as of 25 May 2003, retrieved 2009-02-12.
  • PanAfrican L10n wiki page on Dagaare.
  • Anna Craven. The Pottery of Northern Ghana. Interpreting Ceramics. Issue 10, 2008. Retrieved 2009-02-13.

22. ^ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zambo,_Ghana

  • 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.