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 and Sud-Ouest Region (Burkina Faso), 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 Province, Poni, Bougouriba Province, Bougouriba, Sissili Province, Sissili, and Mouhoun Province, Mouhoun provinces. In Ghana, several waves of internal migration, beginning with the start of colonial rule in the late 19th century (but possibly having been begun sooner) and spiking in the 1980s, 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 of Ghana, Districts and towns of Nandom, Lawra, Jirapa, Kaleo, Ghana, Kaleo, Papu, Ghana, Papu, Nadowli, Daffiama, Wechiau and Hamile. Large communities are also found in the towns of Wa, Ghana, Wa, Bogda, Babille, Ethiopia, Babile, Tuna, Ghana, Tuna, Han, Ghana, Han, Zambo, Ghana, and Nyoli.A. B. Bodomo. Introduction, in A Dagaare-Cantonese-English Lexicon for Lexicographical Field Research Training (Afrikawissenschaftliche Lehrbücher vol. 14). Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Cologne (2004).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. 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 Dagomba people, Dagbon, Mamprugu and Gonja people, Gonja in the north. One thesis based on oral evidence is that the Dagaaba formed as a break away faction of Dagbon under List of rulers of the Kingdom of Dagbon, 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. 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. 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
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 people, Frafra (Gurunsi people, Gurunsi) people. 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).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.Emmanuel Yiridoe. Economic and Sociocultural Aspects of Cowrie Currency of the Dagaaba of Northwestern GhanaOral 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.Tengan Alexis, Mythical Narratives in Ritual: Dagara Black Bgar, 2006, Brussels: Peter LangReligion
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