Wa is the capital of the
Upper West RegionThe Upper West Region of Ghana is located in the northwestern corner of the country and is bordered by Burkina Faso to the north. The capital and largest city is Wa. Other towns include Nandom, Daffiema, Jirapa, Kaleo, Nadowli, Lawra and Tumu....
of
GhanaGhana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
and is the main city of the
Wala peopleThe Wala live in Upper West Region of Ghana.Wala's vibrant costumes are made in Ghana by a local tailor. The type of costume identifies the tribe of a person or group and what region in Ghana they are from. The dance costumes are designed by the group to suit the dance. The raffia skirt is a...
. The majority of the inhabitants are
MuslimA Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
. It is the seat of the Wa-Na, the Paramount Chief of the Wala traditional area. Features of the town include several
mosqueA mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
s, the Wa-Na Palace, a
museumA museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
and a nearby
hippopotamusThe hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
sanctuary. The town serves as a transportation hub for the northwestern part of Ghana, with major roads leading south to
KumasiKumasi is a city in southern central Ghana's Ashanti region. It is located near Lake Bosomtwe, in the Rain Forest Region about northwest of Accra. Kumasi is approximately north of the Equator and north of the Gulf of Guinea...
, north to
HamileHamile is a town in far northwestern Ghana, not far from the border with Burkina Faso.- Transport :In July 2007, contracts were made for the construction of a railway extension to this town.- External links :...
and
Burkina FasoBurkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
, and northeast to Tumu and the
Upper East RegionThe Upper East Region is the smallest of 10 administrative regions in Ghana, occupying a total land surface of 8,842 square kilometers or 2.7 per cent of the total land area of Ghana. In terms of population, it is the ninth most populated region with a population of 920,089 in 2000, accounting for...
. There is also a small airport.
History
Wa has been inhabited for several hundred years, first by
LobiThe Lobi are an ethnic group that originated in what is today Ghana. Starting around 1770 many of the Lobi migrated into southern Burkina Faso and later into Côte d'Ivoire. Currently the group consists of around 160,000 people...
and Dagaare people, and then by Islamic scholars and traders who settled there in order to participate in the trans-Saharan trade. These newcomers adopted the
Dagaare languageDagaare is the maternal language of the Dagaaba people in Ghana and Burkina Faso. It has been described as a dialect continuum that also includes Waale and Birifor.Ethnologue divides Dagaare into three languages:...
and to some extent simplified its grammar, as well as incorporating numerous loan words from Hausa, such as
lafia (satisfactory) and
alabasa (onion). (Both of these Hausa words are ultimately Arabic in origin:
lafia comes from the Arabic العافية, al-'afiyya,
health or
well-being, while
alabasa comes from البصل, al-basal,
onion.) The name of the town means 'come' in the Waali language.
Wa also holds the mortal remains of Sir Ekum Ferguson, the British-Fante who worked to bring the north under British Jurisdiction as well as that of Babatu, a notorious slave raider well known for his raids in this region during the late and early 19 century.
Environment
Wa is in the southern part of the
SahelThe Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....
, the semi-arid area south of the
SaharaThe Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
that ranges from
SenegalSenegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
to the
SudanSudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
. Average annual rainfall is around 1000 mm, almost all of which occurs between May and October. Following the May–October rainly season is a cool dry period called the Harmattan (in Waali
sesiao sanga) when a steady, often dusty, north wind blows from the Sahara. The hottest period of the year is in February and March when daytime temperatures often reach 110 °
FFahrenheit is the temperature scale proposed in 1724 by, and named after, the German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit . Within this scale, the freezing of water into ice is defined at 32 degrees, while the boiling point of water is defined to be 212 degrees...
(42 °
CCelsius is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death...
).
Food and agriculture
Despite its urban status, Wa is in many ways still an agricultural community, and many people make a good portion of their living in small scale farming. The main crops are
cornMaize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
,
milletThe millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...
,
yamsYam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea . These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania...
,
okraOkra is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It is valued for its edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with supporters of South Asian, Ethiopian and West African origins...
and groundnuts. Upland
riceRice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
is also farmed in a few areas. The major fruit crop is the
mangoThe mango is a fleshy stone fruit belonging to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The mango is native to India from where it spread all over the world. It is also the most cultivated fruit of the tropical world. While...
.
SheaVitellaria paradoxa, also classified as Butyrospermum parkii and B. paradoxa, commonly known as shea tree, shi tree, or , vitellaria or karité, is a tree of the Sapotaceae family indigenous to Africa, occurring in Mali, Cameroon, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Togo, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan,...
nuts are collected from wild trees, for food or refinement into oils and cosmetics.
The staple food of Wa is known as T-Zed in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. This is an abbreviation for the
HausaHausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language by about 25 million people, and as a second language by about 18 million more, an approximate total of 43 million people...
expression
tuo zaafi, meaning 'very hot'. In Waali, this food is referred to as
sao. It is a thick porridge of corn flour eaten like
fufuFufu, , is a staple snack of West and Central Africa. It is a thick paste usually made by boiling starchy root vegetables in water and pounding with a mortar and pestle until the desired consistency is reached...
- by tearing off a chunk and dipping into a soup, usually of okra.
The Wa chieftancy
The paramount chief of the Wala people is known as the Wa-na (
na means chief in Waali.)
The Wala chieftancy has an unusually long recorded history, in various documents in
ArabicArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and Hausa. A dispute over the order of succession for the Wa-na began with the death of the Wa-na in 1998. This acriminous and sometimes violent controversy was partially resolved in 2003 with the enskinment of a new Wa-na. His unfortunate death in September 2006 leaves the future of the Wa-na again uncertain.
The Wa-na's palace is a good example of traditional Sahelian architecture, with an exterior similar to that of the main mosque of
Bobo-DioulassoBobo-Dioulasso is a city with a population of about 435,543 , the second largest city in Burkina Faso, Africa, after Ouagadougou, the nation's capital. The name means literally, "home of the Jula who speak Bobo," and is possibly a creation of the French who misunderstood the identity complexities...
.
The Dumba Festival
The Dumba festival was the main traditional event of Wa. It was typically held in late September to correspond with the harvest. The highlight of the year was a ceremony in which the Wa-na stepped over a small cow lying on the ground. According to traditional belief, if any part of the chief or his clothing touched the cow, he would probably die within the year. If on the other hand he stepped over the cow successfully, he was guaranteed a successful coming year.
Education
The City of Wa pays host to a few renowned educational institutions. The biggest Senior High School in the Upper West Region, Wa Senior High School (formerly, WASSEC), is in this city. WASSEC had some tumultuous times in the past due to mis-management and indiscipline which decreased the school's standards. However, the school has recently been recording major improvements in students' general discipline and performance in the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination. The school was made a model school under the previous NPP government, which has boosted its infrastructural capacity thereby making it an attractive destination for students and teachers. Wa also has St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary. Built in the 1960s, Xavier has produced a plethora of successful young men for the service of the country and the world. St Francis Xavier Junior Seminary, arguably the best secondary school in the country, has scored 100% on the SSSCE for a very long time.
Wa also hosts the campus where the majority of students of University for Development Studies (UDS) are based. The three faculties present in Wa are:
- Integrated Development Studies;
- Planning and Land Management;
- Education, Law and Business Studies.
External links