Dagaaba people

Dagaaba people
ethnic group
Native languageDagaare Edit
CountryBurkina Faso, Ghana Edit

De Dagaaba people (singular Dagao, den, for northern dialects insyd, Dagara for both plural den singular[1][2]) be ethnic group wey dey locate north of Ghana, Burkina Faso den Côte d'Ivoire. Dem dey speak de Dagaare language, Gur language wey dem make up of de related Northern Dagaare dialects, Southern Dagaare dialects den chaw sub dialects. For northern dialects insyd, dem dey refer to both de language den de people as Dagara. Dem dey relate plus de Birifor people den de Dagaare Diola.[2] Dema language be collectively known as Dagaare (dem san dey spell am den/or pronounce as Dagare, Dagari, Dagarti, Dagara or Dagao), wey historically some non-natives take dis as de people dema name.[1][3] One historian, dey describe de former usage of "Dagarti" to refer to dis community by colonials, wey dey write: "De name 'Dagarti' dey appear to have been coined by de first Europeans wey visit de region, from de vernacular root dagaa. Correctly 'Dagari' be de language ein name, 'Dagaaba' anaa 'Dagara' be de people, den 'Dagaw' anaa 'Dagawie' be de land."[4]

Geographic spread

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Although sumtimes dem dey divide dem into Northern den Southern Dagaare speakers, dema combined population estimate for 2003 insyd be ova one million wey dem spread across de Northwest corner for Ghana[2] den Sud-Ouest Region (Burkina Faso) for Southwestern Burkina Faso insyd.[2] De Southern Dagaare people be around 700,000 wey dem dey live for de western part for Upper West Region.[2] De Northern Dagaare speakers, plus estimate population of 388,000 (for 2001 insyd)[2] dey live primarily for Ioba Province insyd, but san so for Poni Province, Bougouriba Province, Sissili Province, den Mouhoun Province insyd. For Ghana insyd, chaw waves for internal migration, dey beginplus de start of colonial rule for de late 19th century (but possibly e begin sooner) wey e spike for de 1980s insyd, e bring sizable Dagaaba population to towns for de southern part for de nation insyd, notably Brong Ahafo Region.[5] For modern Ghana insyd, de Dagaaba homeland for de Upper West Region dey include de Districts for Ghana den towns for Nandom, Lawra, Jirapa, Kaleo (Ghana) , Papu (Ghana), Nadowli, Daffiama, Wechiau den Hamile. Dem sanso dey find large communities for de towns of Wa (Ghana), Bogda, Babille, Ethiopia, Tuna (Ghana), Han (Ghana), Zambo(Ghana), den Nyoli.[6]

Society

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Within de Dagawie homelands, de Dagaaba traditionally form sedentary agricultural communities. Modern Dagaaba lineages dey consist of ten clans wey dey encompass ova one million people.

References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Constancio Nakuma. An Introduction to the Dagaare Language. on DagaareLinguists' HomePage". www.hku.hk. 25 May 2003. Archived from the original on 4 August 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Dagara, Southern in Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: Retrieved 200902-12.
  3. ↑ Dr. A. B. Bodomo. [Dagaare Language and Culture, Introduction: The Dagaare language and its speakers], from The Structure of Dagaare (1994) Posted by author March 9, 2004. Retrieved 2009-02-12.
  4. ↑ Ivor Wilks. Wa and the Wala: Islam and Polity in Northwestern Ghana (African Studies) # Cambridge University Press ( 2002) ISBN|978-0-521-89434-0 p. 15.
  5. ↑ Gariba B. Abdul-Korah. ‘Where Is Not Home?’: Dagaaba migrants in the Brong Ahafo Region, 1980 to the present. African Affairs 2007 106(422):71-94.
  6. ↑ A. B. Bodomo. Introduction, in A Dagaare-Cantonese-English Lexicon for Lexicographical Field Research Training (Afrikawissenschaftliche Lehrbücher vol. 14). Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Cologne (2004). ISBN|3-89645-009-3