Nandom | |
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Coordinates: 10°51′00″N2°45′00″W / 10.85000°N 2.75000°W | |
Country | ![]() |
Region | Upper West Region |
District | Nandom District |
Elevation | 869 ft (265 m) |
Time zone | GMT |
• Summer (DST) | GMT |
Nandom is the capital town of the Nandom Municipal of the Upper West Region of Ghana. [1] [2]
Nandom town and the multiple villages that surround it to the north, south, east, and west are inhabited by the Dagara people. The Dagara of the Nandom municipal area and the Dagaaba to the south of Nandom are the same ethnic group, though they speak two different dialects or varieties of the same language. The people of Nandom speak the Lobr dialect, and the Dagaaba to the south speak Ngmere (or Central Dàgááre). People in Nandom use the label 'Dagara' for the language and the people while southern speakers in areas like Jirapa, Nadowli, Kaleo and Daffiama use the label 'Dagaaba' for the people and Dagaare for the language. These are, however, dialectal variation in the pronunciation of the same language rather than names of two dialects, as many people have taken them to be. The varieties of Dagara or Dagaare form a dialect continuum and are multually intelligible.
Nandom used to be part of the Lawra-Nandom District. It became a district by itself in 2012 and in 2020 it became a municipality, called the Nandom Municipal, with a parliamentary representative in the Parliament of Ghana in the capital city of Accra. Nandom town is eight kilometres (five miles) east of the Volta River which is the natural border between Ghana and neighbouring Burkina Faso. There is a road running west of Nandom to the River Volta ending at the village of Dabagteng. Sixteen kilometres (10 mi) north of Nandom is a town called Hamile where there is a formal border between Ghana and Burkina Faso with customs and immigration offices. Many of the towns and villages across the border in southern Burkina Faso also speak the same dialect of Dagara as the people of Nandom. Two other dialects, Wule (a. K.a. Wiile or Ule) and Malba Birifor are also spoken in Burkina Faso.
The Catholic Basilica in Nandom is built of stone and was once the largest Christian church in West Africa. Christian missionary activities in the area were introduced by the Catholic Missionaries of Africa (also called the White Fathers) in the 1930s. The Catholic church was built of stone through labour provided by the native people themselves.
In the middle of the town resides most of the members of the Muslim community. The majority of Muslims are from other parts of Ghana or neighboring Burkina Faso. Most of them are Mossi people from Burkina Faso who settled in the town several decades ago.
Nandom is the home of Nandom Senior High School, a Catholic school established by the FIC Brothers. The town is also home to the Nandom Technical School, also established by the FIC Brothers. St. Anne's Vocational School for girls was established by the Catholic church. There are also elementary schools: St. Andrew School, and St. Paul School. Most of the villages in the area have their own primary and/or middle schools.
The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur or Mabia, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. They are spoken in the Sahelian and savanna regions of West Africa, namely: in most areas of Burkina Faso, and in south-central Mali, northeastern Ivory Coast, the northern halves of Ghana and Togo, northwestern Benin, and southwestern Niger. A few Gur languages are spoken in Nigeria. Additionally, a single Gur language, Baatonum, is spoken in Benin and in the extreme northwest of Nigeria. Three other single Gur languages, the Tusya, Vyemo and Tiefo languages, are spoken in Burkina Faso. Another unclassified Gur language, Miyobe, is spoken in Benin and Togo. In addition, Kulango, Loma and Lorhon, are spoken in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. Additionally, a few Mossi speakers are in Senegal, and speakers of the Dagaare language are also found in Cameroon. The Samu languages of Burkina Faso are Gur languages.
Ouagadougou or Wagadugu is the capital of Burkina Faso, and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic centre of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 2,415,266 in 2019. The city's name is often shortened to Ouaga. The inhabitants are called ouagalais. The spelling of the name Ouagadougou is derived from the French orthography common in former French African colonies.
The Dagaaba people are an ethnic group located north of the convergence of Ghana, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. They speak the Dagaare language, a Gur language made up of the related Northern Dagaare dialects, Southern Dagaare dialects and a number of sub dialects. In northern dialects, both the language and the people are referred to as Dagara. They are related to the Birifor people and the Dagaare Diola. The language is collectively known as Dagaare, and historically some non-natives have taken this as the name of the people. One historian, describing the former usage of "Dagarti" to refer to this community by colonials, writes: "The name 'Dagarti' appears to have been coined by the first Europeans to visit the region, from the vernacular root dagaa. Correctly 'Dagaari' is the name of the language, 'Dagaaba' or 'Dagara' that of the people, and 'Dagaw' or 'Dagawie' that of the land."
Bobo-Dioulasso is a city in Burkina Faso with a population of 1,129,000 ; it is the second-largest city in the country, after Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital. The name means "home of the Bobo-Dioula".
The Lobi belong to an ethnic group that originated in what is today Ghana. Starting around 1770, many Lobi peoples migrated into southern Burkina Faso and later into Côte d'Ivoire. The group consists of a little over a 1,000,000 people. They make up about 2.4 percent of the Burkina Faso population. The exact percentage of Lobis in Ghana and Ivory Coast is hard to quantify since they are often counted as part of larger groups like the Mole-Dagon of Ghana. Estimates however point to around 250,000 Lobis in both of these countries. [The Lobi people speak two main languages, which are the Miiwo and Birifor. Miiwo is widely spoken in Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire while a majority of Lobis in Ghana speak Birifor. Oftentimes, people use the language Birifor interchangeably with Lobi, especially in Ghana.
The Upper West Region of Ghana is located in the north-western corner of Ghana and is bordered by Upper East Region to the east, Northern Region to the south, and Burkina Faso to the west and north. The Upper West regional capital and largest settlement is Wa. The Upper West was created by the then Head of State, Jerry Rawlings in 1983 under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) military regime. The area was carved out of the former Upper Region, which is now the Upper East Region. For about thirty-five years, it remained the youngest region of Ghana until 2018 when six more regions were created by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government; hence increasing the total number of administrative regions in the country to sixteen.
Islam in Burkina Faso has a long and varied history. According to the 2010 census, the population of the country was 63.2% Muslim. The 2019 census notes that 63.8% of the population are Muslim
Ghana is a multilingual country in which about eighty languages are spoken. Of these, English, which was inherited from the colonial era, is the official language and lingua franca. Of the languages indigenous to Ghana, Akan is the most widely spoken in the south. Dagbani, Dagare, Sisaala, Waale, and Gonja are among the most widely spoken in the northern part of the country.
Bissa is a Mande ethnic group of south-central Burkina Faso, northeastern Ghana and the northernmost tip of Togo. Their language, Bissa, is a Mande language that is related to, but not the same as, a cluster of languages in the old Borgu Kingdom area of Northeast Benin and Northwest Nigeria, including Busa, Boko, and Kyenga. An alternate name for the Bissa is Busansi or Busanga which is used by the Mossi people.
Eremon is a relatively small community located in the Lawra Municipality in the Upper West Region of Ghana. It is about 50 kilometers north of Wa the regional capital. It is the biggest subdistrict in the entire region. The people are mainly Dagaaba and they speak an indigenous language called Dagaare.
Dagaare is the language of the Dagaaba people of Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast. It has been described as a dialect continuum that also includes Waale and Birifor. Dagaare language varies in dialect stemming from other family languages including: Dagbane, Waale, Mabia, Gurene, Mampruli, Kusaal, Buli, Niger-Congo, and many other sub languages resulting in around 1.3 million Dagaare speakers. Throughout the regions of native Dagaare speakers the dialect comes from Northern, Central, Western, and Southern areas referring to the language differently. Burkina Faso refers to Dagaare as Dagara and Birifor to natives in the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire. The native tongue is still universally known as Dagaare. Amongst the different dialects, the standard for Dagaare is derived from the Central region's dialect. Southern Dagaare also stems from the Dagaare language and is known to be commonly spoken in Wa and Kaleo.
Burkina Faso is a multilingual country. An estimated 70 languages are spoken there, of which about 66 are indigenous. Mooré is spoken by about 52.5% of the population, mainly in the central region around the capital, Ouagadougou.
Bissa, is a Mande ethnic group of south-central Burkina Faso, northeastern Ghana and the northernmost tip of Togo. Their language, Bissa, is a Mande language that is related to, but not the same as, a cluster of languages in the old Borgu Kingdom area of Northeast Benin and Northwest Nigeria, including Busa, Boko, and Kyenga. An alternate name for the Bissa is Busansi which is used by the Mossi people and Kusasi people or Busanga.
The Oti–Volta languages form a subgroup of the Gur languages, comprising about 30 languages of northern Ghana, Benin, and Burkina Faso spoken by twelve million people. The most populous language is Mooré, the national language of Burkina Faso, spoken by over 55% of Burkina Faso’s 20 million population and an additional 1 million in neighboring countries such as Ghana, Ivory Coast, Niger, and Mali.
Jirapa is the capital town of the Jirapa Municipal in the Upper West Region of Ghana.
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The Mampruli language is a Gur language spoken in northern Ghana, Northern Togo, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali by the Mamprusi people. It is partially mutually intelligible with Dagbani. The Mamprusi language is spoken in a broad belt across the northern parts of the Northern Region of Ghana, stretching west to east from Yizeesi to Nakpanduri and centred on the towns of Gambaga, Nalerigu and Walewale.
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Zambo, one of eight divisional group under the Lawra Traditional council, is a small town in the upper west region of Ghana. It is about 87.5 kilometres north of Wa, Ghana the regional capital. Found under the Lawra Municipal, it and nearby Eremon both claim to be the biggest village in the entire municipal. The people are mainly Dagaabas and they speak an indigenous language called Dagaare. The religion there is mainly Roman Catholicism and the traditional religion which has been there for ages.
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