Gonja (also Ghanjawiyyu, endonym Ngbanya) was a kingdom in northern

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 ...

founded in 1675 by Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa. The word can also refer to the people of this kingdom.

Origin

The Gonja are a

Guan people The Guan people are an ethnic group found almost in all parts of Ghana, including the Nkonya tribe, the Gonja, Anum, Larteh, Nawuri and Ntsumburu. They primarily speak the Guan languages of the Niger-Congo language family. They make up 3.7% ...

who have been influenced by

Dagbon The Kingdom of Dagbon is one of the oldest and most organised traditional kingdoms in Ghana founded by the Dagomba people (Dagbamba) in the 11th century. During its rise, it comprised, at various points, the Northern Region (Ghana), Northern, Uppe ...

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 w ...

, Mande and

Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also * ...

people. With the fall of the

Songhai Empire The Songhai Empire (also transliterated as Songhay) was a state that dominated the western Sahel/Sudan in the 15th and 16th century. At its peak, it was one of the largest states in African history. The state is known by its historiographical ...

(c. 1600), the

Mande Mande may refer to: * Mandé peoples of western Africa * Mande languages * Manding, a term covering a subgroup of Mande peoples, and sometimes used for one of them, Mandinka * Garo people of northeastern India and northern Bangladesh * Mande River ...

Ngbanya

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...

moved south, crossing the

Black Volta The Black Volta or Mouhoun is a river that flows through Burkina Faso for approximately 1,352 km (840 mi) to the White Volta in Dagbon, Ghana, the upper end of Lake Volta. The source of the Black Volta is in the Cascades Region of Burki ...

and founding a city at

Yagbum Yagbum was the capital city of the Gonja (kingdom) founded by Naba'a of the Ngbanya dynasty. Naba'a reigned from 1552/3 to 1582/3. It is now northern Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in ...

. The Gonja kingdom was originally divided into sections overseen by male siblings of Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa including their children and grandchildren. Under the leadership of Naba'a, the Ngbanya dynasty of Gonja was founded. The capital was established at

. The Ngbanya expanded rapidly, conquering several neighbors in the

White Volta The White Volta or Nakambé is the headstream of the Volta River, Ghana's main waterway. The White Volta emerges in northern Burkina Faso, flows through North Ghana and empties into Lake Volta in Ghana. The White Volta's main tributaries are the ...

valley and beginning a profitable gold trade with the Akan states through nearby

Begho Bono State (or Bonoman) was a trading state created by the Bono people, located in what is now southern Ghana. Bonoman was a medieval Akan kingdom in what is now Bono, Bono East and Ahafo region respectively named after the ( Bono and Ahafo) a ...

. By 1675, the Gonja established a

paramount chief A paramount chief is the English-language designation for the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and arch ...

, called the

Yagbongwura List of rulers of Gonja, a kingdom located in the north of Ghana (Dates in italics indicate ''de facto ''continuation of office) See also *Ghana *Gold Coast *Lists of office-holders {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonja, Rulers Rulers A ruler, so ...

, to control the kingdom. The Ngbanya dynasty has controlled this position from its founding to the present day, with only two brief

interregnum An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next (coming from Latin '' ...

s. The current Yagbongwura, ''Tuntumba Sulemana Jakpa Bore Essa'', has held his position since 2010. The National Archives UK - CO 1069-43-87-1-001

Precolonial Gonja society was stratified into

caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

s, with a ruling class, a

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

trader class, an

animist Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Ro ...

commoner class, and a

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

class. Its economy depended largely on trade in

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

from

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...

and

kola nut The term kola nut usually refers to the seeds of certain species of plant of the genus ''Cola'', placed formerly in the cocoa family Sterculiaceae and now usually subsumed in the mallow family Malvaceae (as subfamily Sterculioideae). These cola ...

s, particularly through the market town of

Salaga Salaga is a town and is the capital of East Gonja District, East Gonja district, a district in the Savannah Region, Ghana, Savannah Region of north Ghana. Salaga had a 2012 Human settlement, settlement population of 25,472 people. Etymology The ...

, sometimes called the "

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...

of the South." The

Gonja language The Gonja language, properly called Ngbanya or Ngbanyito, is a North Guang language spoken by an estimated 230,000 people, almost all of whom are of the Gonja ethnic group of northern Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the ...

, properly called Ngbanya or Ngbanyito, is a

Tano language Tano may refer to Places ;Ghana/Ivory Coast * Tano North District and * Tano South District in Ghana, which make up ** Tano North (Ghana parliament constituency) and ** Tano South (Ghana parliament constituency) * Tano River or Tanoé River in Ghan ...

within the

Kwa languages The Kwa languages, often specified as New Kwa, are a proposed but as-yet-undemonstrated family of languages spoken in the south-eastern part of Ivory Coast, across southern Ghana, and in central Togo. The name was introduced 1895 by Gottlob Kra ...

family, closely related to

Akan languages 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 w ...

.Aspect and Modality in Kwa Languages
books.google.com.

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References

Jack Goody Sir John Rankine Goody (1919–2015) was an English social anthropologist. He was a prominent lecturer at Cambridge University, and was William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology from 1973 to 1984. Among his main publications were ''Death, ...

, "The social organisation of the LoWiili",

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1956 *

, The Ethnology of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, West of the White Volta, 1958 *

, Death, Property and the Ancestors: A study of the mortuary customs of the Lodagaa of West Africa,

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

Stanford University Press Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It was among the presses officially ...

, 1962 *

and J.A. Braimah, "Salaga: The Struggle for Power",

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, Longmans, 1967 *

, The Myth of the Bagre,

, 1972 * Goody, Esther and

. "The Circulation of Women and Children in Northern Ghana." '' Man, New Series.'' 2.2 (1967): 226-248. * Wilks, Ivor. " Wangara,

and Portuguese in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries II: The Struggle for Trade." ''

Journal of African History ''The Journal of African History'' (JAH) is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal. It was established in 1960 and is published by Cambridge University Press. It was among the first specialist journals to be devoted to African history and arch ...

'' 23:4 (1982): 463-472.

External links

Ethnologue entry on Gonja language Gonja Association of North America Official website of the Gonja Association of Ghana
{{authority control Ethnic groups in Ghana History of Ghana