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Ghana: Gonja [Guang, Guan or Ngbanya] tribe; traditional lands, languages, chieftancy system

The traditional lands of the Gonja people [Guang, Guan or Ngbanya] are found in the northern part of Ghana in the area surrounding the confluence of the Black and White Volta Rivers (Ethnologue, 1992, 267).

According to Ethnologue, the Gonja language is part of the Kwa family and includes the Gonja, Choruba [Choroba] and Dumpo [Ndmpo] dialects (1992, 267). The entry in the New Encyclopaedia Britannica, however, states that the Guang [Gonja] peoples speak "Gur (or Voltaic) and Guang languages of the Niger-Congo family". The entry further states that "The commoners speak various Gur or Guang languages; the rulers and Muslims speak Gbanyito, a Guang language (1989, 532).

The Gonja system of chieftancy is complex. In order of rank, the chiefs are: Yabumwura (the traditional paramount chief); Nkulongwura (divisional chiefs); Binimu (elders); cub-chiefs; village headmen; and B'wurche (female chiefs) (Braimah, Tomlinson and Amankwatia 1997, 155ff.). The divisional chiefs fill the paramount chieftancy in turn according to a formalized system of rotation. For further information concerning the rituals associated with chieftancy matters and the privileges and responsibilities of chiefs within the Gonja system please refer to the attached.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References

Braimah, J.A., H.H. Tomlinson and Osafroadou Amankwatia. 1997. History and Traditions of the Gonja. Calgary: University of Calgary Press.

The New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1989. 15th ed. Vol. 5. Edited by Pkilip W. Goetz. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Pittman, Richard, Joseph E. Grimes and Barbara F. Grimes. 1992. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 12th ed. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc.

Attachments

Amankwatia, Osafroadou. "Gonja Traditional and Customary Practice and Procedure in Chieftancy Matters Since 1923" in Braimah, J.A., H.H. Tomlinson and Osafroadou Amankwatia. 1997. History and Traditions of the Gonja. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. pp. 155-174.

Pittman, Richard, Joseph E. Grimes and Barbara F. Grimes. 1992. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 12th ed. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc. Ethnolinguistic map of Ghana, p. 266.