Gur

Gur, also called Central Gur or Mabia and formerly known as Voltaic after the Volta River, is a Niger–Congo branch spoken across the Sahel and savanna belt, above all in Burkina Faso and the northern parts of Ghana and Togo. Its principal languages include Mòoré, the language of the Mossi, together with Dagbani, Mampruli, Gurunsi and Gurma.

The Mossi built horseman kingdoms on the upper Volta from the eleventh century, ruled from Ouagadougou by the Mogho Naaba; their neighbours the Dagomba and Mamprusi founded states in northern Ghana. Diverse farming peoples were absorbed into Mossi identity in about 1500. Gur societies kept their history largely by oral tradition, though the Mossi also used the Arabic-based Ajami script.