Gonja (kingdom)

Gonja Kingdom
1675
Status	Kingdom
Capital	Yagbum
Common languages	Gonja
Religion	Islam
Government	Monarchy
Yagbongwura
History
• Established	1675
Preceded by Succeeded by Mali Empire Northern Territories of the Gold Coast

Gonja was a kingdom in present-day northern Ghana founded in 1675 by Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa.[1]

With the fall of the Songhai Empire (c. 1600), the Mande Ngbanya clan moved south, crossing the Black Volta and founding their capital city at Yagbum under the leadership of Naba'a.[2]

The Ngbanya expanded rapidly, conquering several neighbors in the White Volta valley and beginning a profitable gold trade with the Akan states through nearby Begho. By 1675, the Gonja established a paramount chief, called the Yagbongwura, to control the kingdom. The Ngbanya dynasty has controlled this position from its founding to the present day, with only two brief interregnums. The current Yagbongwura, Bikunuto Jewu Soale I, has held his position since 2023.^[citation needed] The Gonja kingdom was originally divided into sections overseen by male siblings of Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa including their children and grandchildren.[1]

References

1. Danver, Steven L. (2015). Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues. Routledge (published 10 Mar 2015). p. 34. ISBN 9781317464006.
2. Wilks, Ivor (1997). "Wangara, Akan, and Portuguese in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries". In Bakewell, Peter (ed.). Mines of Silver and Gold in the Americas. Aldershot: Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Limited. pp. 29–30.