ETHNICITY AND TRADITIONAL POLITICAL ARRANGEMENT

The Mamprusis, Kantonsis, Komma and the Builsas are the major ethnic groups in the district. There are also Fulanis in the District, some of them are working as herdsmen for the indigenous people. The Typical political traditional arrangement includes the following: The Chief, the Wudana who is the linguist in the village and leader of the elders; the Kpandana (the elders of the Community and advisors to the chief), the Tindana (in charge of the gods in the Community/ Fetish priest), the Kanbonnaba (the Chief Warrior), the Nachinaa (the Youth Leader), the Mangazia (the Women’s Leader), the Fongu Kpamma (the Sectional Heads). There are three main traditional areas in the district. These are the Wungu Traditinal Area, Soo Traditional Area and Wulugu Traditional Area. It is worth noting that some communities in the West Mamprusi district share paramouncies with these Traditional areas. All these traditional areas are answerable to the king of Mamprugu, the Nayiri.

The predominant religion in the area is Islam, the major festivals in the area are fire festival and Damba festival. The celebration of the Damba and fire festivals follows the Islamic calendar and it depends on which month the moon appears. The main aim for the Damba festival is to remember the birth and naming ceremony of the Holy Prophet Mohammed. It is therefore a twin festival namely, “Somo Damba” which is celebrated to commemorate the birth of the prophet and “NaaDamba” is held to mark his naming ceremony. The appearance of the Damba month, “goori” marks the beginning of the festival. It is important to note that the festival is a time of unity amongst all the chieftaincy gates of mamprugu. All unsettled grudes in the gates are brought to the chief house for settlement. Broken marriages are reviewed and settled for the betterment of all. The fire festival (Bugum) on the other hand, is observed by the people to mark the landing of Prophet Noah’s Ark after the flood. In recent times, the celebration of these festivals serves as a platform where local interests are publicized as the local elites have increasingly used them as political forums to project local interest while government representatives in their speeches to the festival durbars seek to bring government policy closer to the people.

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION

According to the 2021 PHC, Moslems constitute 80 percent of the district population, followed by Christianity (9.5%) and adherents of Traditional religion (9.4%). The Christian religion is further broken into Catholic (2.3%), Protestants (2.6%), Pentecostal (2.7%), and other Christians (1.9%). People belonging to other faiths either than those mentioned constitutes (0.1%) representing the least percentage in the district. People with no religion are (1.3%).