A history of the people of Nandom 1660-1955

Abstract

The histories of the Northern territories, present-day Northern, Savannah, North East, the Upper East and Upper West regions have had a great deal of attention by scholars. This conclusion is based on a broad review of literature on the history of the people to the Northwest of Ghana mostly by Colonial Anthropologists and contemporary African scholars. Although there is a great deal of research work on the North-West of Ghana, there is very little conscientious study on the origins of the Nandom people, their aboriginal traditions and institutions, and their interaction with both their neighbours and European colonial agents to the nineteenth century. It is simply astonishing that Nandom, which is affectionately called the “Home of Interdisciplinary Professionals” has no far-reaching historical document about its clan origins, their role in domestic slavery and the slave trade, the institutions they acquired and built upon and the like. This missing link is to be the thrust of this thesis. This thesis examines the preliterate society of the Nandom people from 1660 to 1955. The study focuses on the origins of the first three clan settlements in Nandom and the later arrival of the other ethnic groups from 1660 to 1955. Using qualitative evaluation of archival documents, direct interviews in the early communities and the associated palaces of sub-chiefs and divisional chiefs of Lawra-Dikpe, Tom-Zendaagang, Puopiel, Nandomlee, Nardom, Builegang, Ekimpa-Lambusie, Tuopare, Gungunkpe, Zimuopare, the Ninbule (Zongo community) and some secondary documents of historical evidence, this study delineate the origins of Nandom in order of chronology beginning with Zenuo, the grant ancestor of the Dikpielle, followed by the arrival of the Bekuone and the Kpielle clans, and later in the mid-1700 arrival of the Ninbule constituting the Nandom Zongo community. This chronology produced a striking historical narrative of how the early villages came to settle in the current location.