Historical Society of Ghana

A NOTE ON THE PENETRATION OF ISLAM INTO THE WEST OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORIESOF THE GOLD COASTAuthor(s): JACK GOODYSource: Transactions of the Gold Coast & Togoland Historical Society, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1953), pp.45-46Published by: Historical Society of GhanaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41406429 .

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45

A NOTE ON THE PENETRATION OF ISLAM

INTO THE WEST OF THE NORTHERN

TERRITORIES OF THE GOLD COAST

by JACK GOODY {Communicated)

The great carriers of Islam into the Voltaic area were the Mande- speaking peoples, who formed the bulk of the population of the medieval empires of the Niger bend, of Ghana, Mali, and of Sosu. The economic basis for the achievements of these empires was the trade in gold and slaves across the Sahara to the Barbary Coast, a trade which was carried on largely by Moorish merchants. But the source of these supplies lay to the west and south of the famous Sudanese cities, among "the Negro canni- bals of Wangara"1, and this trade was in the hands of the Mande-speaking Dyulas whose name is itself derived from the Mande word meaning "to trade" and carries this significance throughout the region.2 Salt from the mines of the Sahara was exchanged for gold, slaves and kola nuts; cattle, cloth and trade goods were also brought from the north.

One great trade route led from the Niger down to Begho in the north- west corner of present-day Ashanti3. This important centre was founded by the Mande-speaking Ligbis, who were later followed by the Dyulas themselves. Of these groups, some were pagan, some Mohammedan, and the religious dichotomy corresponded to a special separation into two distinct townships. According to the traditions recorded by Meyerowitz, it was the tensions implicit in this structural situation which led to internal warfare and the dispersion of the inhabitants.4 The Dyulas moved away to found Bondoukou: one group of Ligbis crossed the Black Volta to settle in Bole, itself situated on a second great trade-route out of the forest belt, leading northwards through Wa and Lawra. The descendants of the Ligbis and of a related caste of blacksmiths, the Numu, still inhabit a section of Bole, though they no longer speak their former tongue.

It was southward down this trade-route that Dyulas came from between Dano and Wahabu in the Haute Volta to settle at Nasa in the vicinity of Wa ; with them, they brought trade and Islam. Like the Dyulas who followed the Ligbis and established the Gonja state, they have "clan" names characteristic of the Mande-speaking peoples - Konante, Sissi (or Sienu), and Terewele being the three major descent groups.5 Some of their songs are still sung in Dyula. Their migration preceded the Dagomba invasion which set up the state of Wa, and that of Bouna in the Ivory Coast, to- wards the end of the sixteenth century. Disturbances at Nasa led to disper- sion, some of the inhabitants settling at Wa while others moved to Kassena and Builsa.

Rattray's expression of doubt as to the provenance of the core of the Muslim inhabitants of Wa from "Mende"6 fails to appreciate the role of

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46 PENETRATION OF ISLAM

the Mande-speaking peoples in the expansion of Islam and of trade in the Voltaic area. They formed the link between the Akan states and the empires of the Niger bend.7

NOTES 1 Bovill, E. W., Caravans of the Old Sahara , London, 1933, p. 77. 2 Tauxier, L., Le Noir de Bondoukou , Paris, 1921 , p. 209. 3 The "Beeo" of Meyerowitz. 4 Meyerowitz, E. L. R., Akan Traditions of Origin , London, 1952. On p. 46, she

suggests a date between 1630 and 1640. Tauxier suggests 1500. 5 Cf. Binger, L. G., Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée , Paris, 1892, Vol. II, p. 113. 6 Rattray, R. S., Tribes of the Ashanti Hinterland. Oxford, 1932, p. 452. 7 This information was mainly obtained from the Imam of Bole and the Ahmediya Imam at Wa, and supplemented by written documents existing at both towns. I

have omitted any discussion of the Muslim communities at Larabanga and Dokrupe, known as the Maara, owing to lack of opportunity to check information. They appear to have come from Bouna.

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