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=                           Dagaaba_people                           =
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                            Introduction
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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, a Gur language made up of the related Northern
Dagaare dialects, Southern Dagaare dialects and a number of sub
dialects. In northern dialects, both the language and the people are
referred to as . They are related to the Birifor people and the
Dagaare Diola. The language is collectively known as Dagaare (also
spelled and/or pronounced as Dagaare, Dagaari, Dagarti, Dagara 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 'Dagaari' is the
name of the language, 'Dagaaba' or 'Dagara' that of the people, and
'Dagaw' or 'Dagawie' that of the land."


                         Geographic spread
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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 Region. 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 with the demand for labour in mines and cocao
farms in the early 20th century, 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, 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
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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.  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 Nyagse. 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
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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.

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.


Culture
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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.


Oral literature
=================
Oral literature has a long tradition with Dagaaba communities, and
remains a living vehicle of education and acculturation in Dagaaba
society. There are two main types of literature in Dagaaba society.
They can broadly be categorized as secular literature consisting of
stories, tales, proverbs and other oral genre and the sacred
literature produced during ritual and religious services. The most
important of these are bagr mythical narratives recitations and
orations produced during initiation rituals and other religious
services.


Religion
==========
Dagaaba communities historically have practiced Traditional religions,
as well as Islam and Christianity. The Ghanaian Dagaaba have
traditionally had a Cousinage/Joking relationship with the Frafra
(Gurunsi) people.


                             References
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*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070804143201/http://www.hku.hk/linguist/staff_ab.DagaareLinguist.html
Constancio Nakuma. An Introduction to the Dagaare Language. on
DagaareLinguists' HomePage], update as of 25 May 2003, retrieved
2009-02-12.
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070724090409/http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Dagaare
PanAfrican L10n wiki page on Dagaare].
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20081231222051/http://www.uwic.ac.uk/icrc/issue010/articles/03.htm
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


                           External links
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*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110419001955/http://www.hku.hk/linguist/staff_ab.DagaareBibliog.html
Bibliography of Dagaare Studies], compiled by Dr. Adams B. Bodomo,
retrieved 2009-02-12.
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20071201193103/http://www.hku.hk/linguist/staff/Bodomo/JDS/JDShome.htm
Journal of Dagaare Studies], University of Hong Kong, ISSN 1608-0661.
Abstracts of 6 issues in 6 volumes, 2001-2006, retrieved 2009-02-12.


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