Dagaare
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The Dagaare (also spelled Dagare, Dagarti or, Dagao) are an ethnic group in the West African nation of Ghana.
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[edit] History
The evidence of oral tradition is that the Dagara are a stock of the Mole-Dagbani group which migrated to the semi-arid Sahel region in the fourteenth century CE. They are believed to have further migrated to the lower northern part of the region in the seventeenth century due to geographic reasons. They consist of ten clans encompassing over one million people. Arbitrary colonial borders placed them in northwestern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso. Until the latter part of the nineteenth century when institutional chieftaincy evolved, the Dagara had a council of elders form of governance. In modern Ghana, the Dagara inhabit the following paramouncies in the Upper West Region: Nandom, Lawra, Jirapa, Kaleo, Nadowli, Daffiema and Hamile.[1]
[edit] Language
The Dagaare language has been classified as a member of the Oti-Volta group of the Gur branch of the Niger-Congo language family.[2] Dagaare's immediate geographical neighbours are not its immediate genetic relatives, for most of the languages very much related to it like Moore, Gurenne (Frafra), and Dagbane are found in the Upper-East and Northern Regions. Accurate and up-to-date census figures are hardly readily available but the number of native speakers of Dagaare in both Ghana and Burkina Faso may be put at more than one million speakers. In terms of native speakers, Dagaare may be the fourth largest indigenous language of Ghana after Akan, Ewe, and Dagbane.
Dagaare has been the principal language of evangelisation in north-western Ghana since the advent of the missionaries in the colonial era. In present-day language policy, Dagaare occupies a considerably important position. It is one of the nine official literacy languages of Ghana. As a result the Bureau of Ghana languages publishes educational material in it. Dagaare is taught and offered for degree courses in the country's higher institutions such as the University of Ghana, Accra, and the University College of Winneba.
[edit] Notes
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