Browsing by Author "Mbowura, C.K."
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Item Nawuri-Gonja Conflict, 1932-1996(University of Ghana, 2012-12) Mbowura, C.K.; Addo-Fening, R.; Awedoba, A.K.; Baku, D.E.K.This study examines the causes of the Nawuri-Gonja conflict, which broke out in 1991 over allodial land rights. In Alfai, as is the case of other Ghanaian societies, the modes of measuring allodial land rights are embedded in the historical traditions of the people. By right of autochthony and autonomy, allodial land rights in Alfai in the pre- colonial period resided in the Nawuri. However, Alfaiās encounters with the colonial enterprise led to the evolution of new constructs of allodial rights in land, which challenged established traditions and provided the opportunity for the immigrant Gonja community to appropriate land. In 1913 the Germans issued a warrant to Kanankulaiwura Mahama Karatu, the Gonja head chief in Alfai then, making him the overlord of the area for the sake of political expediency. This began Gonja rule over the Nawuri, which was made irreversible when the British colonial authorities subsumed Alfai into the Gonja kingdom in 1932 following the introduction of indirect rule in the Northern Territories. This led to series of encounters between the autochthonous Nawuri and their Gonja overlords over allodial rights in land, which expressed itself in social, political and economic debate in Alfai in the colonial and post-colonial times. By the dawn of independence, Alfai continued to remain as an integral part of the Gonja Traditional Area, thus strengthening Gonja claim that the land belonged to them. As the Nawuri and the Gonja continued to jostle each other over allodial land rights in Alfai in the post-colonial times, and as the dispute remained unresolved, war between them became a possibility. This study argues that the conflicting claims over allodial land rights in Alfai between the Nawuri and the Gonja served as the nexus that connected the multiplicity of layers of issues that underlay the conflict.Item Nawuri-Gonja Relations, 1913-1994(University of Ghana, 2002-07) Mbowura, C.K.This thesis looks at the relationship between the Nawuri and the Gonja from 1913 to 1994. It discusses the arrival of the Nawuri, the Gonja and other immigrants into the Nawuri area and the nature of the relationship between the two groups of people through time. Contacts between the Nawuri and the Gonja date back to the seventeenth century when the two ethnic groups regarded each other as political allies. As political allies, the Nawuri supported the Gonja when eastern Gonja came under attack by Asante in 1744-45. Similarly, the Nawuri supported the Lepo Gonja (one of the three gates to the Kpembe chieftaincy) when a civil war erupted between Kanyase on the one hand and the Lepo and the Sungbung on the other. The relationship between the Nawuri and the Gonja up to 1913 was very cordial and peaceful. In 1913 Karantu Kankarantu Jawula was installed the Kanankulaiwura in the Nawuri area. Throughout his tenure of office, Kanankulaiwura Jawula pursued polices that indicated that the Nawuri were Gonja subjects and that allodial rights to the lands in the Nawuri area resided in the Gonja. It was this action of Kanankulaiwura Jawula and the subsequent amalgamation of the Nawuri area to the Gonja state that brought about a change in the relationship between the Nawuri and the Gonja. There are several feuds between the Nawuri and the Gonja relating to birthrights, allodial rights, overlordship and chieftaincy became the thrusts of their relationship. The local feuds between the Nawuri and the Gonja determined their positions in politics concerning the status of British sphere of Togoland from 1922 to 1956 as well as politics in Ghana from 1966 onwards. The above issues of dispute between the Nawuri and the Gonja, particularly the Gonja claim to allodial rights to lands in the Nawuri area and political control over the Nawuri, their recognition and suppression of Nawuri chieftaincy formed the root causes of the conflicts between the Nawuri and the Gonja both during the colonial and the post-Independence era. The wars between the Nawuri and the Gonja have technically not ended, and a state of war still exists between them since no peace treaty has been signed, The Ampiah Committee that was set up in 1991 by the erstwhile PNDC Government to investigate the causes of the Nawuri-Gonja wars submitted its findings and recommendations to the government in that year. Perhaps for political reasons, a Government White paper was not issued on the findings and recommendations of the Committee.