The Lossos (Nawdba, sing. Nawda) are an ethnic and linguistic group of people living in the
Doufelgou District
Doufelgou is a prefecture located in the Kara Region of Togo. The capital city is Niamtougou.
Doufelgou means White Mountain (white= felm & mountain= dour).
The cantons (or subdivisions) of Doufelgou include Niamtougou, Siou, Défalé, Alloum ...
(Préfecture) of the
Kara Region
Kara is one of Togo's five regions. Kara is the regional capital.
Other major cities in the Kara region include Bafilo, Bassar, and Niamtougou.
Kara is divided into the prefectures of Assoli, Bassar, Bimah, Dankpen, Doufelgou, Kéran, and ...
in Northern
Togo
Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...
, West Africa. The district capital is
Niamtougou
Niamtougou is a market town in and district capital of Doufelgou District (Préfecture), in the Kara Region of Togo
Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by G ...
which is also an important regional market town. The Lossos live on a plateau in the
Togo Mountains
The Togo Mountains is a mountain range which stretches across the central region of the West African country of Togo and across the eastern and western borders of that country into Ghana and Benin. In Ghana, the range is also known as the Akwapim ...
between two mountain ranges: the Kabiyé Mountains to the South and the Défalé Chain to the North. They occupy the communities of
Niamtougou
Niamtougou is a market town in and district capital of Doufelgou District (Préfecture), in the Kara Region of Togo
Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by G ...
, Koka, Baga, Ténéga, Siou, Djogrergou, Sioudouga, Kpadeba, Hago, Koukou, and Kounfaga. The Doufelgou District is bordered by the Kozah District to the South, by the Binah District to the East, by the Bassar District to the West, by the Kéran District to the North, and by the international border with Bénin to the Northeast.
People
The Lossos are primarily engaged in
subsistence farming
Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...
and small animal
husbandry
Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, startin ...
, especially chickens, guinea fowl, goats, pigs, and sheep. They grow
millet and
sorghum that they make into a thick porridge (''la pâte'') that is the staple of their diet and that they brew into a
thick low-alcohol beer called ''daam''. They also grow
yams and
cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...
,
groundnuts (peanuts), beans, and
fonio
Fonio is the term for two cultivated grasses in the genus '' Digitaria'' that are notable crops in parts of West Africa. They are millets with small grains.
Fonio is a nutritious food with a favorable taste. It is consumed mainly in West Afric ...
. In the late 1800s, early European explorers such as the
ethnographer
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
,
Leo Frobenius
Leo Viktor Frobenius (29 June 1873 – 9 August 1938) was a German self-taught ethnologist and archaeologist and a major figure in German ethnography.
Life
He was born in Berlin as the son of a Prussian officer and died in Biganzolo, Lago ...
, baptized them the "palm tree people" because of the concentration of
oil palm
''Elaeis'' () is a genus of palms containing two species, called oil palms. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. The African oil palm '' Elaeis guineensis'' (the species name ''guineensis'' referring to its c ...
trees in their home area.
The Lossos have migrated in search of fertile available land to the area along the North-South National Road No. 1 between
Sokodé
Sokodé is the second largest city in Togo and seat of the Tchaoudjo and Centrale Region in the center of the country, north of Lomé. With a population of 86,500 (2004), currently at around 189,000, the city is situated between the Mo and Mono ...
and
Notsé
Notsé (also Notsie or Nuatja) is a town in the Plateaux Region of Togo. It is the capital of Haho Prefecture and is situated 95 km north of the capital Lomé. The town was formed around 1600 by the Ewe people, after they were displaced west ...
, where they have founded numerous communities. In addition, they have migrated to Togo's capital city,
Lomé
Lomé is the capital and largest city of Togo. It has an urban population of 837,437 , and to
Accra, the capital 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 ...
, in search of wage employment. They have also migrated to the Plateau Region of Togo and the Volta Region of Ghana precisely in the actual Oti Region where they work as
sharecroppers
Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land.
Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...
in
coffee
Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world.
Seeds of ...
and
cocoa plantations. Losso men served in the colonial armies of Germany, Britain, and France as well as in the Ghanaian and Togolese armies in the years following the independences of the two countries.
Language
The Lossos call themselves Nawda (singular) or Nawdba (plural), and their language is
Nawdm
Nawdm is a Gur language of Togo and Ghana. There are about 8000 of the speakers in Ghana and 200 000 speakers in Togo.
Nawdm in Ghana
Nawdm is spoken in the Greater Accra ( capital city of Ghana) and in the Volta Region(now Region of Volt ...
. There are approximately 190,000 native speakers of Nawdm in Togo and 8,000 speakers in Ghana. Nawdm most closely resembles the
Yom
Yom ( he, יום) is a Biblical Hebrew word which occurs in the Hebrew Bible. The word means day in both Modern and Biblical Hebrew.
Overview
Although ''yom'' is commonly rendered as day in English translations, the word yom can be used in differ ...
language of the Pila-Pila and Tanéka people who live near the city of
Djougou
Djougou is the largest city in northwestern Benin. It is an important market town. The commune covers an area of 3,966 square kilometres and as of 2002 had a population of 181,895 people.
Djougou is home to a constituent monarchy.
General infor ...
in the Donga Province (comprising the Southern portion of the old
Atakora Department
Atakora is the northwesternmost department of Benin. Externally it borders Togo to the west and Burkina Faso to the north; internally it borders the departments of Alibori, Borgou and Donga. Major towns in the Atakora include Natitingou and ...
) of Northern
Bénin. Nawdm and Yom, lik
Mòoré the language of the Mossi people of
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to ...
, are classified under th
Oti-Voltasub-group of languages in th
Gur (or ''Voltaique'')group of th
Niger-Congolanguages.
"Losso" is a name used to refer normally to both
Lambas and Nawdba. To refer to someone who is not a Nawda,they use the word Lama. The origin of the name "Losso" or "Lossotu" is unclear and may have its origins in the name that their Kabyé neighbors called them. Confusion arose and has continued when the name "Losso" was attributed by Togo's French colonial administrations to all residents of what is now the Doufelgou District, regardless of their ethnic or linguistic affiliation. Residents of Yaka, Agbandé, Kadjalla, Alloum, Léon, Défalé, Massédéna, Pouda, and other villages in the Doufelgou District speak languages generally classified together as Lamba, but have also been called Losso by the colonial administration. While there has been considerable mutual influence between the Nawdba and their closest neighbors, the
Kabyé and the
Lambas, their languages do not resemble each other and are not mutually intelligible.
History
Like most of Togo's ethnic groups, the Lossos (Nawdba) claim to be the original inhabitants of their region. Also like other groups, their formal tradition states that the original Nawdba descended from Mossi tribe in the country known today as Burkina Faso. The original inhabitants were in each case a man replete with bow and arrows, hoe, and other tools of his gender and a woman also carrying the tools appropriate to her roles.
Informally, many older Lossos stated that the Nawdba came "from the East, toward Djougou (in Bénin)." This statement is supported by the close relationship between Nawdm and the Yom language of the region near Djougou. The apparent similarity between the Yom-Nawdm languages and Mooré of
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to ...
suggested that the Nawdba, Pila-Pila, Tanéka, and perhaps the Woaba peoples may have a common origin in what is today Burkina Faso. The Nawdba were thought to be the last elements of a migration from the East that infiltrated into the plateau between the mountain ridge home of the Lamba to the North and the mountain ridge home of the Kabyé to the South.
More recent scholarship has increased knowledge of the origins of the Nawdba. The founders of Niamtougou have been identified as a man named Kégidimgbada and his wife Iya. Researchers have concluded that the 35% lexical similarity that was identified between the Nawdm and Mòoré languages is sufficient to confirm a common ancestry between the
Mossi and the Nawdba, Pila-Pila, and Tanéka peoples. It does not support the idea, however, that the latter are offshoots of the Mossi nor that their languages have their origins in Mòoré. Further study of the Nawdm language has determined that informants who stated that the Nawdba came from the sky may actually have been saying that they came from the North. Researchers have concluded that the Nawdba immigration into their present home area probably began in the 15th Century and came in waves from the North and East rather than in a single movement.
[Gayibor, N.L., (ed.) ''Histoire des Togolais, Volume I: Des Origines à 1884'', Lomé: Presses de Université du Bénin, 1997, pp. 135-139.]
References
{{authority control
Ethnic groups in Togo