Nawuri-Gonja Conflict, 1932-1996
Date
2012-12
Authors
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Publisher
University of Ghana
Abstract
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, Alfai’s 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.
Description
Thesis (PhD) - University of Ghana, 2012
Keywords
Conflicts, Security, Land Rights, Ghana