The Dagomba are an ethnic group of Northern Ghana and they number about 618,101. [1] They inhabit the Northern Region of Ghana in the sparse savanna region below the sahelian belt, known as the Sudan . The Dagomba constitute about 41 per cent of the population in the area (GSS 2002) and many Dagomba live in other parts of Ghana. [2] They speak the Dagbani language which belongs to the More- Dagbani sub-group of Gur languages. There are around 1 million speakers of the Dagbani. The Dagomba are historically related to the Mossi . The More/Mossi now have their homeland in present-day Burkina Faso . The homeland of the Dagomba is called Dagbon and covers about 20,000 km 2 in area. Na Gbewa is regarded as the founder of Dagbon. Dagomba are one of the ethnic groups with a sophisticated oral tradition woven around drums and other musical instruments. Thus most of its history, until quite recently, has been passed down via oral tradition with drummers as professional griots. According to oral tradition, the political history of Dagbon has its genesis in the lifestory of a legend called Tohazie (translated as red hunter).Dagomba culture is heavily influenced by Islam, brought to the region by Soninke (known as Wangara by Ghanaians) traders between the 12th to 15th centuries. The population is overwhelmingly Muslim (79%) with ancestor worship common among the rural population. [2] Since the time of Naa Zangina, Islam has been the state religion and Islam seems to be growing rapidly ever since. [3] The effort of Afa Anjura in the middle of the twentieth century caused entire communities to embrace the Islamic religion en mass. In the last few decades however, there have been some attempts at Christian conversion but the success has been negligible. Five per cent of the population say they are Christians. Most of these converts in the area are foreigners resident in Dagbon. Inheritance is patrilineal. Important festivals include the Damba, Bugum(fire festival) and the Islamic Eid festivals. The main settlement of Dagombas is Tamale , which also serves as the Northern Regional capital.
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 22:48:40 +0000
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