THE LANGUAGE AND THE PEOPLE
The Nation Ghana in West Africa has over hundred ethnic groups. These ethnic groups are classified into two linguistic families. The Kwa and the Gur. The kwa speakers are traditionally associated with the arrears south of Ghana. It is made up of about 75% of the population of Ghana. The Kwa linguistic group include the Akan speakers (Ashanti Akapim, Akyem, Bono, Fante, Kwahu) etc othber kwa languages are the Nzima, Ga, Gonja, Adangbe, Ewe, Chekosi.
The Gur linguistic family is the largest language family in West African. They live mainly in the three Northern Regions of Ghana, Burkina-Faso and some other countries in west Africa. The principal Gur Language is the Oti-Volta or NigerCongo languages which includes Dagbanli, Mampruli, Nanunli, and Mossi of Bukina-Faso. The others are the Frafra, Talensi, Dagaree, Waali, safaliba, Kusais„ Gurunli, Kantonse, Kamara, Bimoba, konkomba, Basare, etc. the people of present day Dagbang are called Dagbamba. The language they speak is Dagbanli, Dagbanli belongs to the Oti-Volta/Niger-Corgo languages. There are about seventy languages belonging to this group. They are spoken in the Sahelian and Savanna Region of West Africa namely in Northern Togo, North Western Benin and south Western Niger. Dagbang is located in the Northern Region of Ghana in the sparseSavanna region below the Sahelian belt known as the sudan. It is lying between latitude 9 and 10. It is about 20, 000 kilometres square in area. In lengh it runs from Kubalem in the South-East in Zubzugu district to Zantaani in the North-West in Kumbungu District, distance of ahout 200 miles, in width it is 100 miles.
The language Dagbanli is spoken by about two million people. The over-lord of the Dagbong kingdom is Yaa-Naa's. The Yaa-Naa Traditional Court and administrative capital is Yendi. The other towns in Dagbong are; Tamale, Savelugu, Karaga, Gushegu, Sang, Zabzugu, Nyuankpala, Nanton, Kumbungu, Mion, etc. Tamale the administrative capital of the Northern Region Ghana which is a metropolis. It is the fastest growing city in West Africa. Tamale population is largely Muslim and there are several interesting mosques around town. The centre for Natural culture is a lively place with craft shops and regular music and danced performances. Tamale is the focal point of Dagbong in terms Development.
THE ORIGINS OF THE DAGBAMBA
The origins of the people of Dagbong (Dagbamba) is divided into two periods. The first period deals with the origins of the Aboriginal or indigenous Dagbamba. The second period concerns the origins of the rulers of Dagbamba. The rulers of Dagbang and the people they rule today came from different places to where all of them are today. But now the rulers and the rule belong to cone society, the Dagbamba society. The name Dagbamba belongs to the Aboriginal Dagbamaba or the commoners, Tindaaba. These two groups of people of Dagbang are believed to be the descendants of Noah. According to Tamakloe, the earliest writer on the Dagbang history, they are the descendants of the Ad, race, a race which inhabited Arabia many years before the advent of Islam.
There is no direct oral or written evidence as to the period the AD race live. But it is known that, the cousins and successors of the AD, the Tharmoud lived in 715 B.C. it is said that, after the confusion of tongues, the tribe of Ad, the son of Uz, the son of Aram, the son of Sheru son of Noah settled in the province Hardramint where the posterity greatly multiplied. This tribe continued to worship God but in process of time, thy fell from the worship of the true God into idolatry. God seeing this sent them the prophet Heber to preach and reclaimed them. But when they refused to acknowledged his missions, God sent a hot and suffocating win which blew for seven nights and eight days together and which entering their nostrils passed through their bodies and destroyed them all save the very few who had believed in Heber. The tribe was of prodigious structure (giants). The tallest of them being said to be a hundred and fifty feet in height and the least of them ninety feet. This tribe it is said wandered towards the east and west settling in uninhabited countries till they arrived in a country which is today Northern Ghanan and their progeny were called Dagbamba. They were ruled by fetish priest or land owners know in Dagbamli as TINDAAMBA.
ECONOMIC TREES IN DAGBON STATE
Economic trees in Dagbon are mainly dawadawa (Parkia Filicoides), Shea nut trees (butyrospermom Parkii), baobao trees (adansonia-digitata), Kapoktrees and mango trees. The ownership of dawadawa tree is vested in some subordinate chiefs or tittle holders. It is the chief ships or tittle they hold which gives them the right to the fruits of dawadawa trees. No individual is entitle to dawadawa fruits. The chiefs or tittle holders may allow an individual farmer on whose farm a number of dawadawa tree grow to harvest one or two for his own use. Dawadawa trees grow wild, Their fruits have great economic value. The seed is used for the preparation of soup condiment while the yellO\N powder that is extracted from the pods are also used to prepare Porridges and the pods are dissolve in water and use to strengthen swish buildings and floors.
Shea nut trees are the common property of every Dagomba. The nuts they grow are usually plucked by women. Farmers who have shea nut trees on their farms have a greater right to them. They may therefore keep out women who want to enter the farms to pick the nuts. The wives of such farmers usually pick the nuts. Shea nut trees possess the highest economic value among the economic trees. Shea butter is extracted from shea nuts. It is widely used locally and it is exported to Europe and America for multi-purpose. Baobab, Kapok and Mango trees are for individual persons who plant them. Their fruit naturally belongs to the planter. The planter's proprietary right owner them and their fruits is the same. A farmer has other crops that he plant in his farm, when the planter dies, the trees become family property Mango fruits are common locally.Kapok and Baobab trees are not as numerous as the other economic trees. They are found usually around compounds, they are often planted. Baobab seed is used for soup condiment which is similar to the soup condiment prepare with dawadawa seed. rhe taste of the two however differs. lhe white powder extracted from the baobab tree is edible. The shell pods of the baobab trees are usually burnt and the ashes used in the preparation of soaps. The floss of Kapok gives the tree its commercial value. It is use for stuffing Cushing, pillows and mattresses. The seed is used for the preparation of soup or soup condiment, very similar to the condiment prepare with baobab seeds, similarly the shells of Kapok may be burn and the ashes used in the preparation of soaps.
The Nim tree which is foreign to Dagbon is gradually gaining important as an economic tree. Its economic value lies not in the fruit but in its wood Urbanization and the frequent cutting down of trees to give way to large scale commercial farming are depleting wood which are used as rafters. Wood provided by the Nim tree though not as hard as local species used for rafters, is now becoming the best substitute. Apart from its wood values, its leaves are often boiled and the water used as medicine for fever ov malaria likewise the seeds which Ge- eing extracted for its oil also for medicinal purposes. Young Nim plants or the twigs ofthe Nim o ovide—v, chewing sticks for the population. Che tree is planted in front ofhouses to provide shade for resting after the days labour. Birds through their faeces are the best means of the propagation of the seed which easily geminate during the rainy season. Farmers who nurse the young plants become their owners when they grow in uncultivated lands; they become the common property of the inhabitants of the area.
Generally all trees other than those mentioned above which grow wild in Dagbon are the common property of Dagbon. Any dagomba may cut and use them for his own purpose, their fruit if they are edible are for any person who wants to pick or plug them.