Slavery, Memory and Orality: Analysis of Song Texts from Northern Ghana Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Hull Emmanuel Saboro, B.A., M.Phil (University of Cape Coast), Ghana LIST OF PICTURES Plate 1. A photo showing Salaga market in modern times ………………..………24 Plate 2. Photo showing the location of the former Salaga slave market…...25 Plate 3. Man showing “Akumcham”, a spot in Bulsa where the weeping sheanut tree used to be; believed to be where Babatu’s wife was Executed ……..................................................................................................48 Plate 4. Photo showing a narrow entrance designed in a way to make entry difficult for people not familiar with the environment ..................... 49 Plate 5. A warrior in war regalia ................................................................ 53 Plate 6. Men performing at the pikworo slave camp using rocks as drums ......................................................................................................... 54 Plate 7. A performance during the funeral of an elder .............................. 55 Plate 8. A view of the Pikworo slave camp at Nania at Paga near the Ghana Burkina Fasso Border……………………………………………………………………. 55 Plate 9. A view of the landscape in northern Ghana ................................. 57 Plate 10. A rocky landscape depicting parts of northern Ghana ……………… 58 Plate 11. Part of the rocky landscape that sometimes provided hiding places for people escaping slave raiding ................................................... 59 Plate 12. A rocky outgrowth……………………………………………………………………. 61 Plate 13. An Interview with an Informant at his house in Navrongo Photo: George Pwadura ………...................................................................... 62 Plate 14. A community gathering at Chiana Katiu in front of the chief palace during a focused group interaction ……........................................... 63 Plate 15. A group of Women performing at the Pikworo slave camp at Nania …......................................................................................................... 65 Plate 16. Author with the Chief of Paga at his palace after an Interview ….66 Plate 17. Photo showing a foot trail in Salaga believed to have been used by captives from the Bulsa and Kasena areas to the Salaga market. This location is now a tourist site ........................................................................127 ii Plate 18. Photo showing a rocky topography within these cultures that sometimes served as hiding places for people running away from slave raiders .......................................................................................................... 140 iii LIST OF FIGURES Fig 1.1. A map showing where Dogning is located. Basiik is in between Dogning and Nakong ....................................................................................19 Fig 6.1. A map of Ghana showing Northern Ghana. The study areas are marked in black dots ……..............................................................................173 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Throughout the journey towards intellectual development, I have incurred a number of intellectual debts I might not be able to repay. Too many people have helped me in many ways in which time and space might not permit me to name all. I wish to first acknowledge institutional and corporate support especially from the University of Hull, for a three-year International Fee Bursary without which I might not have been able to undertake this study and the University of Cape Coast for granting me study leave with pay. I wish to also acknowledge the Reckitt Education Fund in Hull for their support during my fieldwork. Certain key personalities deserve special mention. These are Professor David Richardson founder and former Director of the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE) and my principal supervisor whose patience and careful direction and support over the period of my PhD studies culminated in my completion. He was particularly instrumental in securing funding for my fieldwork. I wish to also express my gratitude to my co-supervisor Professor John Oldfield. He was always available to answer questions and to read my drafts and offer constructive suggestions and directions. I wish to also thank Dr. Elizabeth Boyles of the Department of English, University of Hull, who in the initial stages of the project provided guidance and gave me some very useful suggestions. All the entire staffs at WISE deserve special mention especially Dr. Douglass Hamilton, Dr. Nick Evans and Rebecca Bloomfield. Emeritus Professor Martin A. Klein formerly of the University of Toronto who first discovered me and felt what I was doing was useful needs special commendation. He was instrumental in helping to find a graduate school until the idea of WISE Came up and he readily offered tremendous support. My friends and colleagues, Dr. David Wilkins, Faisal Farah and Ryan Harley, Mr. Richmond Sadick Ngula of the University of Lancaster, UK, to all I say thank you. My thanks also to the Centre for West African Studies, University of Birmingham especially Professor, Karin Barber, Dr. Catherine v Skinner, and Dr. Bennedetta Rossi who offered me opportunities to present initial drafts of my work. I wish to also thank my senior colleagues back in Ghana at the Department of English for their tremendous moral support throughout my studies. These are Professors Lawrence Owusu-Ansah, Kwadwo Opoku-Agyemang, Dora Edu-Buandoh, and J. B. Afful. My special thanks also to my friend Dr. Chris Jarell of the Avenue Bicycles Project Hull, for helping me cope with life in England. Dr. Catherine Baker and John Nicholls of the Department of History, University of Hull also deserve mention for their immense contribution to the entire project. I also wish to express gratitude to the Chiefs and peoples of Bulsa Traditional area and the peoples and chiefs of the Kasena traditional area for granting me interviews and staging communal performances. I wish to also thank my transcribers and translators especially Dr. George Akanlig-Pagre of the University of Ghana, Legon and Mr. Peter Wangara for their work on the Buli texts and Mr. Logogye, Mr Edward Azambao, Dickson Adiale for their help on the Kasem texts. Finally, I wish to mention my field assistant. George Pwadura and last but not least my wife Mrs. Victoria Korkor Saboro for her enduring patience. vi ABSTRACT This thesis explores memories of slavery and the slave trade among the Bulsa and Kasena of northern Ghana and focuses on late nineteenth century internal slave trafficking. Previous studies on memories of the slave trade in Ghana have focused on the transatlantic slave trade and the trauma of the Middle Passage and have relied on the use of conventional historical methodology such as shipping records, missionary and traveller accounts and the perspectives of colonial officials leaving out the experiences of the descendants of those who were mostly considered as victims. This thesis, by contrasts adopts an interdisciplinary approach and engages with new material from the interior of Africa where most slaves were captured and aims at shifting the focus from the use of conventional historical methodology by seeking to establish the voices of descendants of enslaved communities in northern Ghana through a critical study of their songs. Drawing largely from extensive field work through recording of traditional performances and interviews within these cultures and from a corpus of about 140 with a representative sample of 100 songs, this distinctive body of oral sources aims to contribute to the general body of literature relative to the historiography of slavery and the slave trade in Africa in two significant ways: (1) by the use of the oral tradition and (2) by emphasizing the impact of the emotional and psychological dimension of the slave experience which has often been ignored by historians. A close study of the songs does emphasise the nature of violence that accompanied the enslavement process thereby defeating the prevailing argument that African slavery was benign and less oppressive. The songs also suggest an attempt by these communities who were mostly perceived as victims to rewrite their collective history through songs that celebrate communal valour and triumph over tragedy. The songs also reveal that communities were not just passive victims who acquiesced in the plight of their enslavement, but reflect ways in which communities have also translated what was otherwise a tragic epoch of their history into communal triumph. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Content Page List of Pictures............................................................................................ ii List of Figures................................................................................................ iv Acknowledgements..................................................................................... v Abstract....................................................................................................... vii Introduction............................................................................................ 1 Historiographical Perspectives................................................................... 6 Interdisciplinarity........................................................................................ 11 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………… 14 Chapter One Slavery in Northern Ghana: Historical