Transformations in the chieftaincy institution in Northern Ghana from 1900-1969: A case study of Navrongo and Sakot.
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Date
2009-07-18
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Abstract
This study focuses on the transformations that have characterized indigenous political
administration in Navrongo and Sakot. These areas both belong to the Gur speaking
group and lie north of the Black Volta, specifically in the Upper East Region of modern
Ghana. The study highlights the changes that has occurred in the traditional political
administration of Navrongo and Sakot since 1900. It reflects change and continuity
before British rule, under colonialism and after independence up until 1969. Before
colonial rule in the twentieth century, immigrants had introduced chieftaincy into
Navrongo from Zikku in the North-East Territory of the Upper Volta. This was probably
during the second half of the seventeenth century. The chief therefore replaced the
Tendana as the overall head of the community. He like the Tendana was the link between
the community and its ancestors. Though on the other hand, chieftaincy had not been
introduced into Sakot during the period; the Sakot Da’an as the principal mediator
between the people and the earth god and the ancestral spirits, by virtue of his religious
power, wielded considerable political authority. This form of indigenous political
administration was however short-lived after the British occupied the area in 1902, when
the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast was constituted by an Order in Council. Due to
the devastating effects of the slave raiding activities of Babatu in Navrongo and Sakot,
the people reluctantly accepted British colonial rule as a means to restore peace in the
area. The outcome, was the erosion of the erstwhile sacred personality of the Navorope and on the other hand, the transfer of power and authority from the Sakot Da’an to a
“created political leadership” established by the British. It also created an unhealthy
relationship between the people and their leaders, as the latter were tasked under the
British system of administration to recruit labour for various undertakings. The state of
the chieftaincy institution has been checkered, from colonial times when the British
introduced the system of Indirect Rule in the area, up to the post independence era when
some of the new political elite subverted the institution for political capital. However,
traditional political institutions seem to be the necessary tool for the sustenance of the
various ethnic and cultural groups in Northern Ghana and the country as a whole. The
institution has over the years served to maintain a cohesive social structure of the various
communities. Indeed, an important source of unity and stability that has underscored the
peace and socio - economic development in the area in the past, when there was no
central political administration in Ghana.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of History and Political Studies,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy on February, 2009.