SUMMARY

The Nawuri are an ethnic group located in the northern region of Ghana, mostly on the West bank of the Oti River around Lake Volta. The traditional capital of the Nawuri is Kpandai, which they dominate in the eastern part of Salaga district. The Nawuri have a population of 20 000 and also speak Nawuri as a language. Most follow traditional beliefs whilst 35% are identified as Christian and 2% follow Islam. The main occupation of the Nawuri is farming.

The Nawuri were an acephalous group, which meant that they were socially organized without a centralized, hierarchical system of chiefs who oversaw the administration for land. During British colonial rule, this led to the group being categorized for administration purposes with the Gonja ethnic group of Salaga, who did have a chieftaincy form of social organization, as ethnic chieftaincy structures were used by the British government to receive and deal with complaints and problems. However, this meant that the Nawuri were marginalized relative to other ethnic groups with chieftaincy structures and direct access to the government. Therefore, the Nawuri developed a system of chieftaincy in 1951 to address this. Since then, the Nawuriwura has served as the head chief, who oversees a tiered system of lower-level chiefs; the Nawuriwura has been regularly rotated between divisions. Despite establishing a centralized social structure, clashes with other communal groups due to land disputes and social authority continued to arise.

The Nawuri have traditionally allied with the acephalous Konkomba in clashes against the Gonja (see Gonja - Konkomba, Nawuri).

The Konkomba is an ethnic group that makes up 1,5% of Ghana’s population. Like the other groups in the area, Konkomba’s main livelihood is farming. The group has for long been marginalized since they have religious leaders instead of chieftaincy, wherefore they have no traditional political power or land rights. Furthermore, other ethnic groups in the area claim that the Konkomba are immigrants from neighboring Togo, while the Konkomba themselves claim to have inhabited the Oti river region since the 17th century and thus should be entitled to the same rights as the other groups. The Konkomba has traditionally been allied with the Nawuri in the disputes with the Dagomba, Nanumba and Gonja.

The Konkomba has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.