THE NALERIGU TOUR

After the 2014 cultural festival of the northern region of Ghana which took place on the premise of the Nalerigu Senior High School, we visited the chief’s palace which is at the market square.

In the palace.

The seeds on the ground are shea nuts and millet. The shea nuts being prepared for the shea butter extraction and the millet being prepared for its wine.

A picture with some of the drivers in front of the Nalerigu Palace.

We also visited the Gambaga village hoping to know more about the witch camp, but we were not allowed because the chief refused. According to him, the organizers did not seek permission before visiting, so he forbade us from going to the camp and asked us to leave through his linguist. But I took some pictures of his palace and the surrounding.

Now a picture of the disappointed students and teachers who were not granted access to the witch camp because officials failed to get prior permission. This tells how proud the people of Mamprusi are, without prior permission, you can have all the money in the world to give but none will attend to you.

From here, we went to see the ancient wall of Nalerigu upon the suggestion of a co-teacher; Mr. Alhassan Natoma who is a native of Nalerigu. We were briefed on how the wall came about. This is the information:

THE ANCIENT WALL OF NALERIGU (NAA-DZARINGA WALL)

The paramount chief of the Mamprusi Traditional area, who ordered the wall to be built was Naa- Dzaringa. The chief had only one son. Unfortunately for him, the child was blind in one eye and according to the tribal custom of the area, a person with any bodily defect cannot occupy the royal stool. The child therefore could not succeed his father as the paramount chief of the Mamprusi people.

The chief, Dzaringa thought of how to raise a monument to his memory after his death. He struck on the idea of building a thick wall around the entire town of Nalerigu. He contacted his elders and councilors on the idea. He put it to them thus:

“You are aware that my predecessor Naa-Atabiya won many battles and conquered many tribes. I, Dzaringa, like-wise defeated many of our enemies’ towns and villages. I know for certain that we have many enemies around us who would want to revenge their defeat and regain their freedom. It is therefore advisable that we build a thick wall around our capital seat, Nalerigu, so that any time we are attacked, it would serve as a protective point to defend ourselves against them.”

The elders and counselors readily accepted the proposal. He made plans and ordered that his subjects among the surrounding tribes , captives and slaves be summoned to work on the wall. They organized them into groups, each group worked for a short period in turns. The following tribes worked to build the wall:

(a) Lobis

(b)Grunshies

(d)Walas

(e) Dagombas

(f) Konkombas

(g) Bimobas

(h)Dagabas

(i) Frafras

(j) Sisalas

(k)Kusasis

The wall is known in the Mamprusi dialect as “Bringone”. (‘gone’ means wall and ‘brin’ literary means rolling water)The earth or soil used in building the wall was mixed with honey, shea-butter and milk only. No water was used.

The wall was initially about six feet thick at the base and its height was more than 10 feet. During its construction, whenever a worker complained of tiredness or being sick, he was considered to be lazy or malingering. Such persons were ordered to be bound up and covered or buried into the wall to help raise the structure.

There were very strong gates built into the wall, they were guarded by soldiers day and nights. The gates were opened only from dawn to sunset. Heights of parts of the wall still stand 6ft 5 inches to 8ft. the side from where the earth was dug out for the wall became a big ditch and developed into a stream known as “Blimi” (‘Bren’ and Blimi mean the same thing because ‘r’ and ‘l’ are interchangeable in the Mampruli language). A wall was built across it forming a dam. It is now a source of good water supply to the town.

NOTE: Naa-Atabiya reigned from 1760-1775 while Naa-Dzaringa reigned from 1775-1785.

Nalerigu is 56km from Walewale.

The wall and its environs in pictures.

The last three on our way to the Naa-Dzaringa wall.

A co-teacher who is from Nalerigu educating the students on how the place came to be.

What is left of the wall.

Students at play.

A student looking out for evidence of humans in the wall.

Marking our presence.

We always do something crazy.

The beautiful land and its cows keeping us company.

The Blimi Dam.

Students fascinated just watching.

Having fun.

One thing must be noted, Nalerigu is a farming community. When we visited, water melon was seen everywhere. Some farmers gifted many to our students, those who sold, sold them cheaply. Many people farm water melon there so the prices ranged from 50p to 3 Ghana Cedis. That is from the smallest to the biggest.