Dagbani

The Dagbani, self-styled Dagbamba, are a Gur-speaking people of northern Ghana and Togo, their country Dagbon, its court at Yendi.

Kings claim descent from Tohazie, a hunter said to have come from east of Lake Chad; his descendant Naa Gbewaa settled at Pusiga, and his son Sitobu united the southern farming towns and their earth priests, the Tindaamba. Sitobu's son Naa Nyagsi (1416 to 1432) overthrew many Tindaamba and built Yani Dabari; kings took the title Yaa Naa. Gonja wars drove the court to Yendi, where Naa Zanjina, first Muslim Yaa Naa, defeated the Gonja at Sang in the late 1600s.

Wangara and Dyula traders brought Islam, under Zanjina the court religion; in 1700 the Moliyili school was founded, keeping Dagbani manuscripts in an Arabic-based script. Dagbon grew rich on kola and salt; by 1788 Yendi was described as larger than Kumasi, and women held chiefly titles headed by the Gundo Naa.