The Bawku crisis seems to be escalating with one thing, noticeable. It is no respecter of governments. With the NDC whipping into power, one may think that the warring factions will settle for a truss and give this new government some honeymoon period of two years before re-starting what they know best, fighting and killing each other.
In 2008 or so, I was in the Upper East region on national assignment, when the regional minister told us to accompany him to Bawku and meet the Peace Council who were there to broker peace.
Bawku looked calm to me and we sat down with the Peace Council to try to negotiate peace among the warring factions. The Kusasis came first to lay claim that Bawku belonged to them and not own by the Mamprusis. They said at first the Mamprusis installed chiefs to oversee Bawku, but that was no longer the case.
Then the Mamprusis came and notified us that Bawku is not a Kusasi name, but a Mamprusi name, which means valley. They also claimed that their chief died during the Rawlings’ administration and they have to perform his funeral.
Now this is where the problem lays. But first here is the story I was told about Bawku.
Many years ago, I was told, may be before the Whiteman landed on our shores, the Mossis who were next door in today’s Burkina Faso, would periodically invade Kusasi land and take away able-bodied men to farm for them and beautiful ladies to be their wives.
The Kusasis were not that powerful to withstand such invasions and so, one day they went to the Mamprusis down south for help.
Being a well-organised state with a very powerful army, the Mamprusis went to the aid of the Kusasis when the Mossis struck again. The battle was swift and the Mossis were beaten black and blue in a way that they had never encountered before and they run back home, swearing before their gods that never again will they go down south.
In so much jubilant mood, the chief of the Kusasis awarded the Mamprusis, a land which is now Bawku, saying that, though the land belonged to the Kusasis, the Mamprusis should live there and instal their own chief. So, Bawku became a Mamprusi state within Kusasi land.
Sadly, the Mamprusis, I was told, also started doing to the Kusasis what the Mossis used to do. They made the able-bodied Kusasi men to farm for them and the beautiful women, they took for wives. This was where the problems began.
When the White Man came, the Kusasis petitioned the colonial government for a lasting solution to the problem, but the British turned them down, because the Mamprusis were more organised administratively, than the Kusasis.
When Rawlings came, they petitioned him and he decreed that after the death of the Mamprusi chief in Bawku, the Kusasis should start installing their own chiefs. A simple way to end the conflicts and the colonialisation of Bawku? No, it rather aggravated the problem.
The Mamprusis said no problem and gave up the skin when their chief died. Then they demanded that they should be allowed to do the funeral of their last chief. Simple, isn’t it? No!
As tradition demands, the only person to do a funeral for a late chief, is the newly installed one who replaces him. So, in not too many words, the Mamprusis are demanding that they should be allowed to install their own chief to replace the late chief, so that he can do the funeral.
So, what happens after the funeral? Will the Mamprusi chief abdicate? That cannot be possible and a small town like Bawku will have two chiefs with equal powers, which is another recipe for confusion and conflicts.
I would not advise HRH, the Asantehene Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, to undertake the assignment of attempting to broker peace in Bawku. If things fall apart and they may surely do, and the conflict rises to dizzy heights, Asantes could get condemned more than they are now. Political and ethnic differences could rise up and Ghana may not be at peace.
In my humble opinion and if the story I heard in Bawku about the origin of the conflicts is true, then government has the solution at hand.
First, H.E. John Mahama should send a delegation to go to Nalerigu and see the Mamprusi overlord, Nayiri Mahami Abdulai Sherigah, and plead with him to ask his people in Bawku to calm down. Then the overlord should be asked to allocate a vast piece of land within his jurisdiction for government to put up a township.
When this is done, the Kusasis should be pleaded with to allow the Mamprusis there to install their chief who would do the funeral for the late chief. After the funeral, the new Mamprusi chief in Bawku should move down south with his people to settle in the new township, where he would remain chief.
After all this, a lot of orientations must go on to make these two important ethnic groups become united, for the sake of Ghana. This is my humble opinion.
By Hon. Daniel Dugan
Editor’s note: Views expressed in this article do not represent that of The Chronicle
