LECTURE 3 African political systems.docx

WISCONSIN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, GHANA **FACULTY OF LAW** **COURSE CODE/TITLE: WGS 11 0: AFRICAN POLITICAL SYSTEMS** **LECTURE 3: THE EARLY STATES AND KINGDOMS IN AFRICA** **Introduction** The political systems of Africa and its genesis can also be traced from the early states and ki...

WISCONSIN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, GHANA **FACULTY OF LAW** **COURSE CODE/TITLE: WGS 11 0: AFRICAN POLITICAL SYSTEMS** **LECTURE 3: THE EARLY STATES AND KINGDOMS IN AFRICA** **Introduction** The political systems of Africa and its genesis can also be traced from the early states and kingdoms which emerged over a period through several inter-tribal and language differences and wars. The current stage of nationhood in the continent forms an integral part of the discussions. The lecture in this regard seeks to provide the history of the states and empires which arose in the savanna belt that runs right across the continent from the tributaries of the Gambia and the Senegal to the River Nile as the main elements of discussion in this lecture. **Objective** By the end of the lecture students would be able to: i. Name any three of the early kingdoms of Africa and explain the systems of government at the time. ii. Explain how different states emerged and somes of the challenges they went through before final settlement and development. iii. Name three of the different tribes of Africa and the sort of kingdom systems they had and how justices were administered on the early settlement and development into a full blown state. In all the available oral traditions as well as from such little documentary evidence as we have, that the Mole-Dagbani states of Mamprussi, Dagomba and Gonja and the Mossi states of Yatenga and Wagadugu were the earliest of the kingdoms to emerge in modern Ghana. All these kingdoms were to be found in the region bounded on the north by the River Niger and on the south by the River Volta, that is, in the regions immediately to the south to ancient Ghana, Mali and Songhai. Where these kingdoms emerged and who founded them? How were the kingdoms governed and what happened to them in the course of their centuries. The historical facts about the early kingdoms in the Volta Basin indicates that northern Ghana and Upper Volta were occupied by such people as the Vagala, Sisala, Dagarti, Tampolensi and the Guan to the west of the White Volta and to the east the Konkomba, Koma, Nafela, Gbimba and the Chamba. All these people with the exception of the Guan belonged not only to the same linguistic or language group called Gur by linguists, but also to the same culture and civilization. In the first place, most of them were acephalocis, that is, they had no states or governments; each headman of a family was a chief in his own right. Their religious beliefs and systems of land ownership were also the same. All the lands occupied by the Gur speaking people were divided into well-defined areas called Tengani which still exist. At the head of each Tengani was a Tengdana. He was usually the head of the original family kingship group of the area and he acted not as a political leader or king but rather as the chief priest and spiritual mediator between the earth, which was believed to be a god, and the people of the area. Like the Akan, these people also believed in a supreme deity called Weni in Dagarti, and in occult or magic. Fetish worship or animism was also widespread among them. These regions were commercially the trade routes leading from Asante, the land of gold and kola nuts and the Ivory Coast to the regions of ancient Ghana, Mali, Songhai and the Hausa states. They became the key to the economic life of both the forest regions and western Sudan. As early as the middle of the C15th we had in the Kano chronicle, a documentary reference to the merchants arriving in Kano with kola nuts from Gonja, that is, the region of the Black and White Volta and a historian had suggested that Buipe was the main centre for this trade. Since the caravan trade developed much earlier in the regions of the Niger Bend in the Hausaland, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the trade westwards from the Volta must have begun probably in the C12th or C14th. This earlier trade was in the hands of the Mande Dyala or the Wangara as the Akan call them. By the C14th, these Wangara had founded the commercial centres of Wa, Tuna and Bole all along the western trade route and Begho which was situated just south of the Black Volta and not far from where the state of Bono-Mauso was to rise. These Mande Dyala or Wangara had been influenced by the Soninke of Ghana and had been converted to Islam. They therefore brought with them into modern Ghana not only commodities like salt and textiles but also Mohammedianism. The first real states to emerged in this region appears to be those of Mossi, Mamprussi, Dagomba and Gonja. Like many African people, the ruling aristocracies of these kingdoms have traditional accounts of their origins, and it is clear from these, as well as from linguistic evidence that they were invaders who met the autodihonous people already referred to. According to these traditions, the rulers of Mossi, Mamprusi and Dagomba are all of the same parent stock and came together from Zamfara which was one of the Hausa Banza Bokwoi. They said to have settled first in Mali for some time and then under a chief called Tohajiye, the Red Hunter; to have moved to Gambaga or Nalerigu where they founded the kingdom of Mamprusi. From Gambaga, some members of the ruling class moved north to found the Mossi kingdoms of Yatenga and Wagadugu and others founded Dagomba. As usual, underneath this legend lies a substratum of truth. For one thing, the tribal marks of the Dagomba are said to be identical with those of the Zamfara people, and the two people in fact refer to each other as playmates -- rather like the Asante and Nzema of modern Ghana. Secondly, the kings of Dagomba and Mossi to this day look upon Gambaga as their spiritual home and could appeal to the Na of Mamprusi in cases of disputed succession. The rulers of Gonja on the other hand have a different tradition of origin. They maintain that they originated from a band of Mande warriors who invaded northern Ghana from the region of the Songhai Empire under their ruler Ndewura Jakpa. Though small in number, they were able to impose themselves on the people who were already living there and to establish the kingdom of Gonja with Yagbum as the capital and Buipe as its most important commercial centre. Here again, the frequent occurrence of Mande words in the language of Gonja, the prevalence of Mande clan names and tribal marks among the Gonja, and similarities of Gonja and Mande rules of succession and inheritance confirm these traditions of origin. When were these kingdoms founded? These questions have been differently answered by historians. Some say that Mamprussi, Mossi and Dagomba were founded in the C11th. Others have mentioned the end of the C12th, the 2^nd^ half of the C13th, C15th or C16th. According to the Yavikh as-sudaru and the Tarikh al Fattash, both written in Timbuktu, the Mossi raided the regions of the Niger Bend as early as the end of the C13th and again in 1340 and 1430. If these references are correct, then the three states began to rise during the latter half of the C12th nor the first half of the C13th. However, some historians are of the opinion that though these raids may have occurred and even from the same direction, the raiders might not necessarily have been Mossi and that the Timbuktu historians might have attributed these earlier raids to them because of the later raids in the C15th for which they were undoubtedly responsible. According to these historians then, the Mole Dagbane states did not emerge and expand until during the 2^nd^ half of the C15th. Dagomba was extended by one of its rulers, Nyagre (1476 -- 92) across the White Volta to include the important salt-producing centre of Dabaya and the commercial centre of Buipe. The Mossi also began to extend their power northwards and throughout the latter half of the C15th, there were, as is evident from the Timbuktu Tarikhs or chronicle -- constant clashes between them and the rulers of Mali and Songhai. It appears then that, whatever the date for their foundation was, it is clear that by the early C16th, these three states were established and powerful. The twin Mossi states of Yatenga and Wagadudu were by then serving as the bulwark against Mali and Songhai, and Dagomba was dominating the basin of the White and Black Volta with Yendi Dabari -- a few miles on the east bank of the White Volta, as its capital. The date for the foundation of Gonja is equally uncertain. Accepting the traditional accounts of origin on their face value, some historians like Ward have given the C17th as the date for the foundation of Gonja. But it appears almost uncertain and this is confirmed by the kingship list -- that the founding of Gonja began during the 2^nd^ half of the C16th and the king Ndewura Jakpa of the oral traditions is in fact latter who did not succeed to the throne until 1623. He reigned for a long period of 43 years during which he consolidated the conquest of his predecessors and extended them further. For instance, he chased the Dagomba across the White Volta and passed as far into the eastern regions where he is said to have founded Salaga. The rulers of Dagomba felt so harassed that they abandoned their capital and founded a new one, the modern Yendi, further eastwards. Jakpa also invaded the region of Bono, south of the Black Volta about 1939. How were these kingdoms organized? Though they founded at different times, Gonja, Mamprusi and Dagomba though not the Mossi states, were organized broadly on the same lines. The rulers by and large left the social and religious institutions of the conquered peoples under them intact. The division of the land into Tengani was also retained as far as possible and the subject people continued to occupy the important ports of Tengani and to play some political roles. In Gonja for example, it is these priests and local chiefs who enrobe all the divisional chiefs except the Kpembewura. Gonja appears to have been divided into nine districts and Dagomba into fourteen. The kingdoms of Dagomba were governed by the Na with assistance of a Judicial Council of Elders and a State Council of Divisional Chiefs and Elders. In Dagomba, the latter was convened only when matters of great importance affecting the kingdom arose, such as, the declaration of war. In this kingdom, inheritance was patrilineal and all the sub-chiefs were appointed by the Na or by the Divisional Chiefs while from the end of the reign of Na Zangina (C 1714), the Na himself was elected by a committee of four from among three of the Divisional Chieftainships, namely; Miong, Savelugu and Karaga. The government of the Mossi kingdoms was on the other hand, much more centralized. The Naba exercised very tight control over the divisions. He was assisted by ministers of state who held court offices or governorships. The activities of all foreigners like the Dyala traders, Hausa craftsmen and Fulani shepherds were very strictly controlled by a minister of state, the Yar-Naba, who was the chief of the Yarse, the immigrant Muslim Mande group of traders. Mossi also had a warrior class responsible for defence as well as for aggressive wars. The political structure of Mossi was clearly very close to that of Songhai rather than to that of Mamprussi, Dagomba and Gonja. Culturally, the Mole-Dagbani states were markedly different from the Mossi states of Yatenga and Wagadudu. Before the C18th Islam has become the religion of the court in the former states and had ducidly influenced and shaped their social and legal institutions. To this day, Mamprussi, Gonja and Dagomba show as wilks has recently pointed out strong Islamic features super imposed on the traditional system, for example, in the existence of imamas, and other specifically Muslim offices in the use of the Muslim Calendar and in the university observance of the major Islamic festivals in the widespread adoption of Muslim fashions of naming, circumcision and burial in the presence of Malikite elements in the law. Moreover, in all these states, the imams and mallams play an important role in the installation of new kings. But Islam did not make much headway nor impact on the Mossi states until the 2^nd^ half of the C18th. Commercially, these kingdoms were by the end of the C17th still playing decisive roles in the trade between Hausaland and the Niger Bend to the north and the forest states to the south. Gonja controlled the north-eastern trade with the upper Niger regions while Dagomba dominated the trade with Hausaland and the north-east. These regions also constituted important sources for the supply of slaves to the coast. It was mainly this vital commercial role that, as we shall see presently, led to the conquest of all but the Mossi states by Asante during the first half of the C18th.