Dagbon Is Bigger Than Yendi; Please Let's Give Peace A Chance

In the long rich history of Dagbon, the Damba festival has always been celebrated at ONLY and ONLY one chief palace across Dagbon in each town and village. Sub-Chiefs who fall under a paramount chief, all gather at that paramount chief's palace for the celebration. That is why in Tamale, the Lamashe-Naa, Kanvili-Naa, etc all gather at the Dakpema Lana's palace for the Damba festival each year. Likewise at Sagnarigu, all sub-chiefs under the Sagnari Naa gather at the Tamasco field for the celebartion. The Sagnari Naa celebrates his separately because, Sagnarigu is a paramount skin and even in Dagbon custom, its 'namship' is bigger than Dakpema and Gukpegu in Tamale as children of Yaa Naas can occupy Sagnarigu. Hence, the observation of Damba at Sagnarigu instead of Dakpema palace. The celebration has never been undertaken at more than one place in any village/town under one chief. This helps bring unity and togetherness among the people.

However, in recent times, this unique celebration of our beloved tradition has been marred by some of our brothers in Yendi who choose not to join the rest of the people at the Gbewaah palace. The reason being that they're not from the same gate with the occupant of the Gbewaa palace and hence they won't join him in celebrating the festival. So, does it mean that anytime the opposite happens, the other group should also decide to boycot it and celebrate it at their self-chosen palace instead of at the palace our great ancestors occupied with rich history and tradition for centuries? What precedence are we setting and what then will be the future for Dagbon?

There's this misconception a greater percentage of 'Yendians' have that the Yaa Naa is the custodian of onlyYendi and that Dagbon is only Yendi. They most at times fail to look beyond Yendi whenever they want to undertake any actions with negative consequencies on Dagbon as a whole. No wonder in the heat of the Dagbon crisis in 2002, one guy in Yendi was heard asking the question "I don't understand why we're fighting in Yendi and then the Tamale people are intefering"? This is the kind of minds we have who are sending the good people of Dagbon backwards all the time when the rest of the country is striving to move forward. These people, I'm sorry to say, are in a world of their own but their actions affect every Dagomba everywhere in the world. They never feel the impact of their behaviours and how the outside world look at us. Although we have well respected and level headed Dagombas who hail from Yendi, I don't understand why they cannot talk to educate those our brothers there to do the right thing. Or they talk to them but they fail to listen? Each and every Dagomba knows the stand of the Yaa Naa, the Gbewaa palace and for that matter where our festivals are celebrated but just a section of a group in only Yendi in the whole of Dagbon. WHY and WHY that? May God help change their minds. Their behaviours are making all Dagombas look bad in the face of Ghanaians as 'one monkey spoils all monkeys' but that is never the case. We have a lot of sons and daughters of Dagbon who are peace-loving and development-oriented.

The question that always bothers my mind is, why are the Damba festivals in all towns and villages in Dagbon being celebrated together irrespective of either one is Abudu or Andani but that can never be replicated in Yendi? Meanwhile, in all corners of Dagbon, we have the two groups mixed up with the chief of the village/town belonging to one of the gates but no group, as far as I'm concerned ever decided to celebrate the festival differently. Is Yendi therefore in a world of its own? It's very very unfortunate!

I wish to appeal to all those who cause disturbances in Yendi that, they should know Yendi is just a fraction of Dagbon and that Dagbon and it's people are far bigger than Yendi. That some people in Yendi cannot be sending us backwards all the time and cannot also be making us look bad in the face of Ghanaians. They must know their actions always have ripple effects on a lot of innocent souls who don't even know the road to Yendi but are Dagombas. They should therefore wake up and let us forge ahead in unism rather than mobilising arms to kill each other in the name of chieftaincy when the rest of the country is striving for development. A word to the wise, ......

Submitted by: AR, Danjuma (aka Dagbang Doo) Tamale