The Nafana are a

Senufo people The Senufo people, also known as Siena, Senefo, Sene, Senoufo, and Syénambélé, are a West African ethnolinguistic group. They consist of diverse subgroups living in a region spanning the northern Ivory Coast, the southeastern Mali and the wes ...

living in the central north-west of

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

and the north-east of Côte d'Ivoire, in the area east of

Bondoukou Bondoukou (var. Bonduku, Bontuku) is a city in northeastern Ivory Coast, 420 km northeast of Abidjan. It is the seat of both Zanzan District and Gontougo Region. It is also a commune and the seat of and a sub-prefecture of Bondoukou Depart ...

. They number about 45, 000 (SIL/GILLBT 1992) and they speak Nafaanra, a

Senufo language The Senufo or Senufic languages (''Senoufo'' in French) has around 15 languages spoken by the Senufo in the north of Ivory Coast, the south of Mali and the southwest of Burkina Faso. An isolated language, Nafaanra, is also spoken in the west o ...

. They are surrounded by Gur speakers to the north, the isolated Mande speaking

Ligbi The Ligbi (or Ligby) people speak a Mande language in Ghana, in the north-west corner of the Brong-Ahafo Region. Ligbi is spoken by approximately 10,000 speakers (1988 GILLBT/ SIL). It is fairly closely related to Jula, Vai and Kono. A small ...

people to the east, and the

Akan Akan may refer to: People and languages *Akan people, an ethnic group in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire *Akan language, a language spoken by the Akan people *Kwa languages, a language group which includes Akan * Central Tano languages, a language group ...

speaking Abron to the south. The Nafana people relate that they come from Côte d'Ivoire, from a village called Kakala. According to Jordan (1978), their oral history says that some of their people are still there, and if they go back they would not be allowed to leave again. They arrived in the Banda area after the Ligbi people, who according to Stahl (2004) came from Bigu (Begho, Bighu) to the area in the early 17th century. Some major towns of the Nafana people are

Sampa __NOTOC__ The Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (SAMPA) is a computer-readable phonetic script using 7-bit printable ASCII characters, based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). It was originally developed in the late 1980s for ...

, Kokoa, Duadaso No 1, Duadaso No 2, Jamera, and Kabile which are in the

Jaman North District Jaman North District is one of the twelve districts in Bono Region, Ghana. Originally it was formerly part of the then-larger Jaman District on 10 March 1989, which was created from the former Berekum-Jaman District Council, until part of the d ...

. Brodi and Debibi are in the

Tain District Tain District is one of the twelve districts in Bono Region, Ghana. Originally it was formerly part of the then-larger Wenchi District on 10 March 1989; until the western part of the district was split off to create Tain District on 12 November ...

Banda Ahenkro Banda Ahenkro is a town located in the west-northern of Bono region, Ghana, near the border of Ivory Coast. Its geography provided a home for numerous groups seeking shelter from across West Africa during the slave trade era. The original name ...

in the

Banda District Banda District may refer to: * Banda District, India, a district in Uttar Pradesh, India * Banda District, Ghana Banda District is one of the twelve districts in Bono Region, Ghana. Originally it was formerly part of the then-larger Tain D ...

. The people are mainly farmers. Their major festival is the Songhei Festival mainly original in Jamala or Jamera celebrated annually. The Nafana people are the real who can trace their origins from the Songhai empire. Their main culture heritage town is Jamera where all their history and traditions are based.

Bibliography

*Pitt, Walter (1926) 'The Mfantera or Frantomafo meaning those who wear clothes', ''Gold Coast Review'' 2/1: 71–77. * Stahl, Ann (2004). "Making history in Banda: Reflections on the construction of Africa's past", in ''Historical Archaeology'', 38, 1, 50–56. Ethnic groups in Ghana Ethnic groups in Ivory Coast {{Africa-ethno-group-stub