The Wala or Waala live in
Upper West Region
The Upper West Region of Ghana is located in the north-western corner of Ghana and is bordered by Upper East region to the east, Northern region to the south, and Burkina Faso to the west and north. The Upper West regional capital and largest se ...
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 ...
. They are a predominantly
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 ...
people who are the founders of the city of
Wa and the
Kingdom of Wala {{No footnotes, date=October 2022
The Kingdom of Wala was a polity in what is today Ghana based around Wa. According to some traditions it had an imam as early as 1317.
In the early 1890s, Wala was largely west of the Kulpawn River. Its western bo ...
. They speak the
Wali language, which belongs to the
Gur group. There are 84,800 speakers of the language as of 2013. Their neighbors are the
Birifor,
Dagaaba
The Dagaaba people (singular Dagao, and, in northern dialects, for both plural and singular
, update as of 25 May ...
, and
Vagla people Vagla may be,
*Vagla language
Vagla is a Gurunsi ( Gur) language of Ghana with about 14,000 speakers. It is spoken in a number of communities around the western area of Northern Region, Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially ...
s.
Their culture is similar to other
Gur-speaking,
Senoufo
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 ...
and
Mande groups in northern
Cote d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
,
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 the ...
and
Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
. They are known for their impressive
Sudano-Sahelian style
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
s and palaces. They are ruled by their traditional ruler, the
Wa-Na whose traditional residence is a mud-brick built palace in
Wa.
According to the 1921 census of Ghana the Wala numbered 16,905, although it is thought that that census missed some of the small villages in the
Wa District
Wa Municipal District is one of the eleven districts in Upper West Region, Ghana. Originally created as an ordinary district assembly in 1988 when it was known as Wa District, until two parts of the district were later split off by a decree of pr ...
. This meant that at the time they were outnumbered in Wa District by the Dagarti. In many ways the difference between Dagarti and Wa is which side of the rebellion they were on in 1894, those who sided with the Wa-Na coming to be the Wala, and those who rebelled being considered part of the Dagarti people. The number of Dagarti was so high because the British had imposed the pre-1894 boundaries of the
Kingdom of Wala {{No footnotes, date=October 2022
The Kingdom of Wala was a polity in what is today Ghana based around Wa. According to some traditions it had an imam as early as 1317.
In the early 1890s, Wala was largely west of the Kulpawn River. Its western bo ...
as the boundaries of the District of Wa.
[Ivor Wilks, ''Wa and the Wala: Islam and polity in northwestern Ghana'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 13]
References
Ethnic groups in Ghana
{{Ghana-geo-stub