Dagomba - The Warriors

Dagombas are the descendants of Gbewa. The state of Dagomba was founded by a son of Gbewa called Sitobu. Sitobu led his brothers to oppose the rule of their brother, Tohogu ,after the death of their father. After the civil war, he moved southwards with his followers to found the state Dagomba. Since Sitobu had better weapons, he became the ruler of the local people. His people were better organised and so they were disciplined and also took orders from their leaders. They did fear to die in war because they wanted to do what they were ordered to do. The Dagombas were good horse riders, so they took that advantage to defeat the local people because they feared horses. Ya--Na was then the paramount chief of the Dagombas and the greatest of the early Ya--Na was Nyagse who lived in Diara, their capital town. This man was the son of Sitobu, He was a brave soldier who liked fighting and that led him to defeat his enemies. He made the kingdom very big through wars. Whenever he defeated any group of people, he killed the local ruler and chose his own relatives to rule the place. This allowed the Dagomba people to mix fully with the local people. Because the Dagombas were the decendants of Gbewa, they regarded Mamprusu as their home and regarded Gambaga as their spiritual home .These two places can be found in the northern part of Ghana. The people of Dagomba played an important role in the trade between Asante to the south and other people to the north. They collected taxes from Hausa and Mosi traders who passed to Asante to buy product such as kola that made the kingdom rich. In addition to this Dagomba town , Daboya also produced salt and traders came from the north to buy the salt. As Gonja became more and more powerful, which made Dagomba people became worried. During the reign of a Ya--Na, he called Darizigo, the Dagomba kingdom was attacked by the ruler of Gonja, called Ndewura Jakpa, Daboya was captured from Dagomba ruler. Then the Ya -Na, had to move his capital from Dira to Yendi to prevent the Gonjas from capturing that place too. During the reign of Azigeria, Dagomba gained its freedom from Gonja, but unfortunately, for them the freedom lasted for only a short period. By 1746, Dagomba was defeated by Asante. Yendi was captured and the Ya-Na was forced to pay tribute to Asante every year until 1874. This history by the Dagomba's has reflected on their present lives that is to say, because they mixed with the people and other tribes it has made them ver popular in the country in the following ways. Firstly, the title of the paramount chief Ya-Na has been given to one of our Armour cars in Ghana and this has increased the morale of the Dagombas. Out of about 49 languages in Ghana only 7 have been considered as the major languages in Ghana and News are read in Dagomba on radios and some programs on the Ghana.Television, which is a great achievement because not all the languages are used on the media. Thirdly, they strove to achieve something which was the practice of their ancestors who put in maximum effort to get better place to live and presently, they have tried to acquire large area of land at the Northern region of Ghana. They have big farms and other things and because they were disciplined the Dagombas comport themselves in what ever they do. Once again the Dagombas have been given high positions in the country e.g. members of parliament, teachers, doctors just to mention a few. Despite the fact that they are disciplined they are domineering and like fighting. If you hear the Dagombas fighting with other tribes it is because of land just as their early fathers were doing. By Gloria Kwaakye Armed Forces Secondary College