Mamprusi-Kusasi Imbroglio; 1902-2000: A Colonial Legacy or Failure of the Post-Colonial State

Abstract

The Kusasi-Mamprusi ethnic conflict in Bawku, a border town located in the extreme Northeastern corner of Ghana, which began in 1957, has become protracted. The two factions have clashed four times between 1980 and 2000. The disagreement has been over who should occupy the Bawku skin( a titled chieftaincy position) as Bawkunaba and control the Bawku land, as land ownership is tied to occupancy of the Bawku skin. Scholarly works on conflicts in Northern Ghana, have traced the root causes to the introduction of chieftaincy by the British colonial administration in the area. The policy that amalgamated smaller states with big kingdoms, created a subordinate-master relationship between the Kusasi and Mamprusi. Proponents of colonial government's complicity argue that attempts by the Mamprusi to maintain the status quo during the post-colonial Ghanaian government, has provoked the recurrent ethnic conflicts between the two groups.

This paper, situated within a broader historiographical context concludes that, though the conflict could be described as a colonial artifact, other dimensions of the phenomenon e.g. the emergence of party politics in the mid-1950s which polarized the society; the actions and/or inactions of post-colonial Ghanaian governments were major contributory factors that created tensions which led to violent confrontations. Thepartisan approach by post-colonialgovernments politicized the conflict and encouraged attempts by the factions to appropriate political space and authority.