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THE DAGOMBA: are a people of Northern Ghana. They inhabit the sparse West African savanna region below the Sahel belt, known as the Sudan (not to be confused with the country). They speak the Dagbani language which belongs to the More-Dagbani sub-group of Gur languages. The More/Mossi now have their homeland in present day Burkina Faso,undefined

while the Dagbani sub-group today has broken up into three ethnic groups: The Dagbamba, the Mamprusi and the Nanumba. Even though these groups today constitute three apparently distinct ethnic groups, their people still identify with each other and the bond is strongest among the Dagbamba and Nanumba. The homeland of the Dagbamba is called Dagbon and covers about 8,000 sq. miles in area and has a total population of about 650, 000. The area constitutes seven administrative districts in present day Ghana.  undefined These are the Tamale Municipality, Tolon/Kumbungu, Savelugu/Nantong, Yendi, Gushegu/Karaga, Zabzugu/Tatali and Saboba/Cheriponi. The overlord the Dagbon Traditional Kingdom is the Ya- Na, whose court and administrative capital is at Yendi. Yendi is reputed to be the largest village in West Africa. The Dagbon Kingdom has traditional administrative responsibilities for hitherto acephalous groups like the Konkomba, the Bimoba, the Chekosi, the Basaari, the Chamba, and the Zantasi. Though ethnic Dagbamba are in the majority, the people of the subject ethnic groups have equal citizenship rights in the Kingdom. The seat of the Ya Na literally translated as King of Absolute Power, is a collection of cow skins. Thus when we talk of the political history of Dagbon, we often refer to it as the Yendi Skin. (Not throne or crown).

Na Gbewaa is regarded as the founder of Greater Dagbon (Present day Dagbon, Mamprugu and Nanung). Lacking in a writing culture, Dagbamba are one of the ethnic groups with a very sophisticated oral tradition woven around drums and other musical instruments. Thus most of its history, until quite recently, has been based on oral tradition with drummers as professional historians. So according to oral tradition, the political history of Dagbon has its genesis in the lifestory of a legend called Tohazie (translated as Red Hunter.).

Culturally, Dagbon is heavily influenced by Islam. Inheritance is patrilineal. Important festivals include the Damba, Bugum (fire festival) and the two Islamic Eid Festivals. The most cosmopolitan city of Dagbon is Tamale, which also serves as the Northern Regional capital.

Frafra

FRAFRA: is a colonialist term given to a subset of Gurunsi peoples living in northern Ghana and their language. The larger group of Gurunsi peoples inhabit both southern Burkina Faso and northern Ghana. Derived from the greeting "Ya Fara-Fara?", which means "How is your suffering (work)?", this term is applied to these peoples, who share common histories, languages, and political structures, but it may also carry pejorative overtones in local usage. Most of Gurunsi live in modern day Burkina Faso, and the degree to which Frafra history differs from their northerly neighbours, such as the Nuna, Bwa, and Winiama, is linked to their living in modern day Ghana. These differences arose during colonial times, which began in the early part of the 20th century, as French and British colonial systems differed in their administrative practices.

Frafra are primarily sedentary farmers, growing millet, sorghum, and yams. Maize, rice, peanuts, and beans are grown in addition to these staples. Farmers throughout the region practice slash and burn farming, using fields for approximately seven or eight years before they are allowed to lie fallow for at least a decade. In the family fields close to the villages, women grow cash crops, including sesame and tobacco, which are sold in local markets. Men participate in hunting during the long dry season. This is important for ritual reasons, since it is during this time that men may interact with the spirits that inhabit the bush. During the dry season, when food supplies are running low, some fishing is practiced in local swamps.

Frafra societies are comprised mainly of farmers, without social or political stratification. They are not divided among occupational castes or groups since most of them simply till the land and engage in occasional hunting. They had no internal system of chiefs, and all important decisions were made by a council of elders consisting of the oldest members of each of the village lineages. Religious leaders do maintain some political authority, determining the agricultural cycle and parceling out land for cultivation.

Belief in a supreme creator being is central to Frafra beliefs. A shrine to this god occupies the center of every village. Each extended family maintains its own hut, in which the lineage magical objects are kept. The objects allow the family to maintain contact with the vital forces of nature. These objects are inherited by the ancestors and are the communal property of the lineage, providing protection and social cohesion among all members of the family.

The most recognized of the Frafra art forms are cast brass jewelry and beautifully decorated architecture. In addition anthropomorphic figures sculpted from clay and wood and various personal objects, ranging from jewelry to wooden stools, are created to honor the spirits.

Bolgatanga is the commercial center of the Frafra area. Other important villages and towns include Navrongo, Bongo, Tongo, Zuarungu, Zoko, and Pwalugu.

Frafra peoples have a special playmate (joking) relationship with the Dagaare peoples of northwestern Ghana, which has its roots in a believed common ancestry.

Fulani

Fulani nomads and their genetic relationships to neighboring sedentary populations.

Publication: Human Biology
Publication Date: 01-FEB-06
Delivery: Immediate Online Access
Author: Cmejla, R.

Article Excerpt

The Fulani (also known as the Foulah, Peulh, Peul, Fulfulde, or Fulbe) are an ethnic group of sub-Saharan Africa who live in 17 states and number almost 30 million people. Although most Fulani now live settled lives, they spring from an originally nomadic population. Both the settled and nomadic communities are collaborating. The settled communities cultivate the cereals (mainly sorghum) and raise a small number of domestic animals; the activities of the pastoral groups are concerned almost exclusively with animal husbandry. It must be stressed that cattle keeping is really the central point of cultural identity of all Fulani nomads. Because of the specific needs of this practice, more pronounced division of labor, resulting in longer time separation of the husband and wife, is encountered in Fulani society. Males deal with the pasture, and females sell milk and milk products in town markets. Nomadic Fulani are known from almost all localities of the West African savanna and the Chad basin.

Archeological indicators date the origin of this nomadic population, on the basis of the rock art of the central Sahara, to about 5,000 years ago (Dupuy 1999); some indicators even suggest a Neolithic origin of the Fulani population (Ba and Dieterlen 1966). Some Fulani groups settled to form a number of important states: the kingdom of Tekrur on the lower Senegal River in the 11th century, the Massina Empire on the middle Niger in the 15th century, and the Sokoto Empire in the 19th century in northern and eastern central Nigeria.

The modern Fulani, who live in sub-Saharan Africa between the Sahara and the tropical rain forests, can be divided into the settled Fulani (15 million people) and the nomadic Fulani (up to 13 million people), sometimes called the M'Bororo (or Bororo) or the Wodaabe. The nomadic Fulani live in the African middle savanna belt, from eastern Senegal to the Central African Republic, and are the most numerous nomadic group in this area. Linguistically, both Fulani groups (the herders and the agriculturalists) belong to the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo language family (Ruhlen 1987).

Fulani nomads remain detached from the settled Fulani. Over the course of the year they practice seasonal migration; in the rainy season they move with their herds to the north, and in the dry season they return to the south. The north-south line varies by tribe and family but is generally about 500 km long (Dupire 1962). In addition to these seasonal movements, there is large-scale migration, by which the nomadic Fulani have spread across the West African savanna and the Chad basin (Mohammadou 1975).

From an anthropological perspective the Fulani are rather heterogeneous; they show similarities to other sub-Saharan populations, but some characteristics--such as pale skin, a long, straight nose, and thin lips--link them to North African groups. In the 1930s it was assumed that the Fulani had migrated into the Lake Chad region and further into the West African savanna from East Africa, and even Egyptian and Near Eastern origins were proposed (Tauxier 1937); on the basis of the Rh system, however, it has been possible to link these populations to West African groups (Excoffier et al. 1987).

mtDNA Variability in Sub-Saharan Africa

The mtDNA diversity of African populations is relatively well known, but not all regions and ethnic groups have been sufficiently sampled yet; indeed, the mtDNA data of people from such inaccessible areas as eastern Chad or the Congo basin have not been studied at all.

From the phylogenetic point of view the mtDNA sequences from sub-Saharan Africa have been classified into L-type haplogroups (Chen et al. 1995, 2000; Watson et al. 1996, 1997; Rando et al. 1998; Bandelt et al. 2001; Pereira et al. 2001; Torroni et al. 2001; Brehm et al. 2002). About 30 sub-Saharan L-type haplogroups have been identified, and their ethnic or geographic origins and coalescence times have recently been summarized (Salas et al. 2002, 2004; Kivisild et al. 2004; Rosa et al. 2004). It seems that the main diversifications originated in East Africa but that the West African regions also contributed to the recent, wide mtDNA diversity.

The nomadic Fulani have not been studied with regard to mtDNA so far. The only samples (n = 61) from a Fulani-speaking population have been presented in research by Watson et al. (1996, 1997), who investigated a mixed sample of settled Fulani from Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria. Close relationships to the neighboring settled populations of West Africa (the Tuareg, Kanuri, Hausa, Songhai, Yoruba, and Mandenka) have been confirmed by other studies [e.g., Pereira et al. (2001) and Salas et al. (2002)]. This Fulani group cannot be separated from the other populations, even by the indexes of molecular diversity (Pereira et al. 2001; Trovoada et al. 2004). Rosa et al. (2004) has recently studied another group of sedentary Fulani (n = 77); these are Fulani from Guinea-Bissau, unique in their slight divergence from six otherwise similar populations in Guinea-Bissau. Their haplogroup profile shows high proportions of haplogroups Lib, L2a, and L3b in particular, although a few Eurasian haplogroups were also found among them.

Study Aims

The aim of this study is to present the HVS-I mtDNA sequences of nomadic Fulani groups from four different locations that have not yet been described in this way. There are four questions that we seek to answer: (1) What is the mtDNA profile of the sample--does it include haplogroups of East or of West African origin? (2) Are the sampled Fulani genetically homogeneous, and do they reveal similar degrees of molecular diversity? (3) Are there genetic differences between the nomadic and sedentary Fulani populations? (4) What are the genetic relationships between the Fulani and their neighbors?

Abstract

Despite the large size of the contemporary nomadic Fulani population (roughly 13 million people), the genetic diversity and degree of differentiation of Fulanis compared to other sub-Saharan populations remain unknown. We sampled four Fulani nomad populations (n = 186) in three countries of sub-Saharan Africa (Chad, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso) and analyzed sequences of the first hypervariable segment of the mitochondrial DNA. Most of the haplotypes belong to haplogroups of West African origin, such as L1b, L3b, L3d, L2b, L2c, and L2d (79.6% in total), which are all well represented in each of the four geographically separated samples. The haplogroups of Western Eurasian origin, such as J1b, U5, H, and V, were also detected but in rather low frequencies (8.1% in total). As in African hunter-gatherers (Pygmies and Khoisan) and some populations from central Tunisia (Kesra and Zriba), three of the Fulani nomad samples do not reveal significant negative values of Fu's selective neutrality test. The multidimensional scaling of FST genetic distances of related sub-Saharan populations and the analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) show clear and close relationships between all pairs of the four Fulani nomad samples, irrespective of their geographic origin. The only group of nomadic Fulani that manifests some similarities with geographically related agricultural populations (from Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria) comes from Tcheboua in northern Cameroon.

EXCERPTED FROM BOOK: Mami Wata:  Africa's Ancient God/dess Unveiled

Mama Zogbé, Chief Hounon-Amengansie, M.Ed

HISTORIC BACKGROUND IN TOGO

In Northen Togo about thirty-five kilometers from Sokode, in what is known as the “Tchamba District,” there exist a multi-ethnic mixture of mainly Fulani groups who are known as the Tchamba.   These rural districts consists of numerous towns and villages with Kri-Kri, Kambole, Dantcho and Kousoutou  comprising some of their main village centers. Buli and Gur, also known as “Atche”  is the language spoken by these Tchamba groups, whose inhabitants reside across the entire West African landscape including in Northern Ghana, Upper Volta, Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and among the Kaby  (Ewe) in the central Kara region of Togo.

The ancestral spirits of these numerous Fulani groups are served in the lineages of the Ewe, Mina and Quatchi clans in southern Togo  because many of the Fulani women who fled northern Togo in search of work in the south were held in perpetual servitude by some Ewe families who often did not pay them due compensation for their services.

When these Fulani servants died their spirits would return to the Ewe families from which they were indentured and demand to be honored and that their children be justly compensated.  In the majority of the cases, these ancestral spirits were inter-ethnically mixed because many Ewe men married their Fulani servants and bore children with them.

Divine Compensation: Righting Moral Wrongs

Because the system of Divine Restitution is inherent within  the Yeveh Mami Vodoun Ewe cosmology, special ceremonial rites are held to honor those indentured Fulani whose ancestral lineages are as old as Africa herself.  In return for their honor the Ewe are rewarded with blessings of wealth, health and protection of their own children as well as divine relief from the Law of Restitution.  Although the Tchamba groups are found today in Northern Togo, their history is an ancient one that extends to a far more remote period in African history.

The Fulani are some of the oldest Africans on the planet and are genetically connected with all African groups. Sometimes being completely absorbed by the local groups wherever they have settled.   However, the “Tchamba” “slave sibs,” did not begin with the Ewe. It has its origins deep in the soils of Africa’s oldest matriarchal ancestral spiritual systems. Specifically in the matriarchal compensatory systems of ancient Africa, where no African soul is “lost,” but are re-subsumed back into the cosmogenetic families of their original ancient sibs. In modern terms, for all enslaved throughout the Diaspora, this would mean the genetic haplogroups who descend from the first ancient mother clans of “Eve.”

Ancient  Meaning and Origin of Word “Tchamba”

Although attributed to the Fulani, “Tchamba” is actually a cosmological concept rooted in restoring justice to the ancient totemic and elevated ancestors whose children have been wronged by other Africans. Without this system of divine justice, the offending African clans will suffer misfortune and even extinction if justice through agreed compensation is not restored. According to some sources, the word “Tchamba” is a German phonetic corruption of the word “Samba” or “Somba,” meaning “naked/native.”  The colonial French spelling is “Chamba” and was attributed to the Fula (Fulani) groups of the West African Atlantic regions and among the Mande in North Africa.

However, the word “Chamba” could have its etymological origins in the word “Chamha” as it was known by the ancient [Ewe] Syrians and “Hama” by the Persians,  meaning “Sun-people,”¹ or  literally “children of the Sun,” and more extant “Temple of the Sun.”  Referring to one of the oldest Mami temples located in the Swiaa desert in southwestern Egypt. This ancient Ompha  oracular temple was later usurped by the priests of Ammon and renamed “Temple of Ammon.” Nevertheless, the Fulani, Ewe and Da-Adangbe groups share an ancient cultural and, prior to its usurpation by  Mohammedan Islam, matriarchal spiritual history together

The Fulani Slavery and Divine Conpensation

During the height of African patriarchy It was the forced usurpation of the original matriarchal clans/sibs which divided the Fulani groups, with many of the patriarchs adopting and imposing the new misogynistic Islam upon its resistant queen mothers and clan members.  Those who did not comply were tortured, killed or sold into slavery.  What distinguishes the Fulani from  other Africans who later participated in the West African slave trade, is that they were the first to establish  an organized system of commerce  in “chattel slavery”, which they began by selling off their own fellow ethnic clan members to the white Arabs and later to the Europeans. The Fulani were the major business intermediaries of slave commerce throughout Africa and made no compunction about selling those matriarchal clans who would not comply in converting to Islam. In the “New World”, on the island of Trinidad and in Tobago, the name “Chamba” and “Thiamba” still survives and is directly identified with the Fulani slave traders or the speakers of the Gur languages.

It is for this reason that the Fulani prefigure so strongly in the West African slave sibs of the Tchamba, heading the ancestral pantheon of elevated ancestors.  It is under Mami Awussa who have resurrected the souls of these matriarchs and  have eternally sentenced those who sold them to now serve their descendants as part of their divine restitution. In other words, it is the elevated ancestors of the ancient Fulanis who must compensate all of the victims of the slave trade and are responsible for retrieving and redirecting all enslaved Africans back to their ancestral clans/sibs. This is what makes the Tchamba such a powerful ancestral system in America and elsewhere, because according to Mami Wata Vodoun cosmology, all Africans enslaved anywhere in the world are brought back under the domain of the Tchamba, who then re-aligns them back to their original bio-genetic ancestors. Thousands of Africans enslaved in America (such as the author)  were already of Tchamba spiritual heritage, their more ancient ancestors having descended from a more remote time period during the era of the matriarchs.  In Togo, to claim Tchamba “slave” lineage is now considered a badge of honor.