Bole is a small town and is the capital of

Bole district Bole Municipal is one of the seven districts in Savannah Region, Ghana.Bole District
Originally ...

, a district in the

Savannah Region The Savannah Region is one of the newest regions of Ghana and yet the largest region in the country. The creation of the Region follows presentation of a petition by the Gonja Traditional Council, led by the Yagbonwura Tumtumba Boresa Jakpa I ...

of northern

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. Bole is connected by

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

to the town of Sawla and the town of Bamboi. Bole is home to the

Bole District Bole Municipal is one of the seven districts in Savannah Region, Ghana.Bole District
Originally ...

Hospital and post office. The Bole District covers an area of 4800 km2 land mass and has a population of about 87,656.

History

Bole was founded as a trading center by

Soninke Wangara The Wangara (also known as Wakore, Wankori, Ouankri, Wangarawa) are a diaspora community of ethnic Soninke origin who served as specialized long-distance merchants throughout West Africa, particularly in trans-Saharan trade. Originating from the ...

immigrants, the same group that were the progenitors of the Dyula of

Begho Begho, also known historically as Nsoko or Insoco, was a city located in the Bono state of Ghana, located just south of its successor community, Hani. Begho was established as a trading entrepôt and cosmopolitan centre linking merchants from ac ...

, Bouna,

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 Departme ...

and Kong. The town was located on an important regional trade route for

kola nut The kola nut ( Yoruba: ''obi'', Dagbani: ''guli'', Hausa: goro, Igbo: ''ọjị'', Sängö: ''gôro,'' Swahili: ''mukezu'') is the seed of certain species of plant of the genus ''Cola'', placed formerly in the cocoa family Sterculiaceae and ...

s linking the

Manding region Manding, Manden or even Mandé is a region located in West Africa, a space between southern Mali and eastern Guinea. It is the historic home of the Manding languages, Mandinka community. The Malinke people, Malinke are at the origin of the found ...

with

Hausaland Hausa Kingdoms, also known as Hausa Kingdom or Hausaland, was a collection of states ruled by the Hausa people, before the Fulani jihads. It was situated between the Niger River and Lake Chad (modern day northern Nigeria). Hausaland lay between ...

, and was a part of the

Gonja kingdom Gonja was a kingdom in present-day northern Ghana founded in 1675 by Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa. With the fall of the Songhai Empire (c. 1600), the Mande Ngbanya clan moved south, crossing the Black Volta and founding their capital city at Yagbum ...

. In 1818 Bole fought a war against the

Ashanti Empire The Asante Empire ( Asante Twi: ), also known as the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted from 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana and also parts of Ivory Coast ...

. When they lost, the victors deposed the ruling Timite family of

imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

s and replaced them with the Kamaghate. The Bolewura, leader of the historical Bole chiefdom and current Traditional Area, moved his seat to Bole in 1868.

Institutions

* Bole Senior High School * Bole District Police Command * Bole District Government Hospital * Nkilgi FM

Notable natives

John Dramani Mahama John Dramani Mahama (; born 29 November 1958) is a Ghanaian politician who has been the 14th president of Ghana since January 2025. A member of the National Democratic Congress (Ghana), National Democratic Congress (NDC), he served as the 12th p ...

Climate

References

{{Coord, 09, 02, N, 02, 29, W, region:GH_type:city, display=title Populated places in the Savannah Region (Ghana)