Trekking upcountry to ‘watch a dance’ opening up the slavery narrative at the frontier beyond the Black Volta
Lions, zebras, hippos… and a man-made lake for watersports! These form part the attractions at the ranch established by the Royal Cosy Hills Resort at Jirapa, up the northern territories in the Upper West Region.
While the fascinating safari here presents a fresh getaway experience for holiday makers, PaJohn Dadson asserts that with that part of the country beyond the Black Volta now opened up, the “slavery trajectory narrative” is complete; and as such the heritage should be celebrated, especially by those visiting from the African diaspora as part their ‘Return’ pilgrimage.
The flight from Accra is on time. Within an hour as scheduled, we are taxiing on the short non-descript runway at Wa Airport in the capital of the Upper West Region. It is not a busy port so in a matter of minutes, our luggage is dragged in in the most rudimentary manner – on a manually pulled open wheel cart. We collect our bags and step out to embrace the dry sultry weather that has just greeted us.
I am excited. I have longed to visit this place. To complete my circle of touching every point of what I call the Slave Route of Ghana. Because when you think about it, it is actually from here that folks were captured and sold on into slavery than from the south, as a result of the antics of human raiding mercenaries! And there are many relics here in the region to show for this.
The climate here is tropical savanna, sweltering all year round, especially during the dry season, with an intermittent rainy spell between July and September. Even then, the weather is oppressive. This sets the backdrop for the lifestyle of the people who live here.
Known for their impressive Sudan-Shelia’s style mosques and palaces, the name Wa takes its root from the Dagbani expression ‘te wa kaa yeng seore’ – literally, “we came to watch a dance”!
Before people migrated here to form a settlement, this whole region beyond the path of the Volta River – whose source is in the Cascades Region of Burkina Faso and flows down some 1,300km to the White Volta in Dagbon in present-day Ghana – was battleground with land conquests, human raids and kidnappings to capture people to sell into slavery.
The original indigenous name for the Volta River is Mouhoun. European colonialists exploring the country replaced that name with the Portuguese word Volta, which means “turn” – owing to its meandering course.
The people here, the Wala, are a predominantly Muslim group who are the founders of the city of Wa and the Kingdom of Wala. They are among the tribes that fall under the authority of the King of Dagbon, known as the Yaa Naa. They speak Dagbani, a popular dialect in northern Ghana and Togo, which is part of the Gur language – native to around 1.2 million people.
Their culture, similar to the other Gur-speaking Senoufo and Mande groups in northern Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Mali, holds cattle as a symbol of wealth; usually using it as a bride price. This must explain why all along the route as we head out of town westward to Jirapa, our final destination and location for our impending adventures, we encounter several herds roaming the countryside.
Less than an hour’s drive later, we enter Jirapa and make our way to the Royal Cosy Hills Resort, the 126-room fully-loaded facility with lots of amenities that give it its 3-star status, including 60 standard and 52 deluxe rooms as well as 14 executive suites.
The property is set on some 360 acres of land, part of which is a ranch offering safari with an impressive number of rare species, including white African lions, hippopotamus, Impalas, Livingston’s Eland, Indian blackbuck, nyalas, Burchell’s zebras, fallow deers as well as a mix of other small species roaming casually.
Siting this hotel here changes the narrative, as it opens up the north-western frontier, establishing a fresh destination for vacationers. Hitherto, visitors hardly made it to this part of the country beyond the Black Volta. Now, those visiting, especially from the African diaspora, must add it to their bucket-list as part of their ‘Return’ pilgrimage.
To better understand the trajectory of what fuelled the trans-Atlantic movement of people captured into slavery, you really ought to begin here in Ghana’s northern territories. Here, you will see the many relics that speak to the slavery narrative.
It is very possible that the genesis of the supply chain of the captured – from battle, kidnapping or bought to repay a debt, something that was common in those times – could have been from this territory; before the whole enterprise took hold and spread across the land.
Stories are told of the constant human raids and how the indigenes of the Sahel north adapted and resisted the threats of violence and enslavement by exploiting their unique landscape and topography as well as local architecture and flight as strategies against captivity from slave raiders.
The Wuling Hills, near Jirapa, holds one of these fascinating narratives. The area is dotted with rocks whose notable mushroom-like structural formation boasts of the ‘Umbrella Rock’, a huge boulder balancing ever so delicately on a thinning base stem. A must visit sight featured in one of the excursions offered by the hotel.
Legend has it that it is here, in the days of yore, that folk from the surrounding communities sought refuge during the infamous days of human raiding by the likes of Samouri Touri and subsequently Babatu, notorious slave raiders of the 16th and 17th centuries.
As recently as the late 1800s, the notorious Babatu, a jihadi warlord of the Zabarima emirate who it is believed to hail from far away Mali, along with his band of merry mercenaries, roamed this region raiding communities. In 1887, they attacked Wa, causing much of the population to flee.
It was the gruesome antics of these raiders over the years that led to the building of the defence wall at Gwollu, and the growth of Salaga, Paga and Pikworo as slave markets from where the captured were marched on that long enduring trek down-south, shackled to the coast, stopping by the river and freshening up for onward sale at the market at Assin Manso.
As I marvel at the aesthetic magnificence of the property, thoughts fill my mind and I freeze. There’s a blur and my eyes shut. Transfixed, I am surrounded by bush, sparse shrubs and dry wild Sahel grass.
There, in the far distance along a beaten path leading up the hill, beyond the few scattered naked savanna trees, dust rises from the gallop of approaching horses. Closer and closer, emerging from the stirring cloud fast advancing toward me, I see men in white flowing gowns made dirty from all the dust and dirt, striding their stallions, their flapping garments – made from cotton and linen – covering their whole bodies, as well as wrapped around their faces.
The man in the lead is most animated. We lock eyes, and he roars with each stretch. His face, lean with tribal marks, dark and sweaty with blood-shot eyes fixated on me as he lashes his horse after each gallop! Then from about 10 feet away, he points his whip at me as he closes in, giving a final hauling roar, pulling his horse to a stop right in front of me, the accompanying dust engulfing us!
Just then, I open my eyes. I’m still standing where I am frozen by the pool here at the resort. It occurs to me that this scenario could very well have played out back in the 16 or 17 centuries when human raiders were active in this territory, capturing the young who were then sold into slavery. I could well have been on that trajectory of history and laid in that path to be picked up as one of their cargo and sold off at the slave market at Salaga, near Tamale.
It may have been a couple 100 years since the mercenaries roamed these neighbourhoods, their sordid reputation causing trepidation far and near. Today, however, this place – from where residents dispersed – has a reputation of a different kind. A kind that is attracting the descendants of the dispersed, and those captured and bound into a dreadful life of chattel slavery overseas, to return and walk on the soil of their ancestors, spirited free men and women.
The animals imported for the circus are now all secured on the grounds of the ranch, where they can roam within wired parameters. With two domestic airlines flying directly to Wa, only 45 minutes drive from Jirapa, it’s time to tick off trekking upcountry for encounters in the new frontier.
