12/08/2026
MID-WEEK PROPAGANDA EXPOSÉ
The Kusasis have been propagating a false narrative, that the Nayiri sent his children (Mamprusis) to come and rule them (Kusasis) in Bawku. Mahama Ayariga, the lead Kusasi Propagandist said in an interview that, “In today’s world it’s no longer tenable for Mamprusis to exercise authority in the Kusasi area. It will be difficult for anyone to be imposed on the Kusasis by the Nayiri as a chief” but is that the historical reality.?
FACTS!
The Nayiri, King of Mamprugu, did not sent his Princes back to the Bawku area to rule the Kusasis or any other tribe but rather to establish fresh settlements in order to protect that part of the Nayiri’s territory on the Gambaga-Tenkudugu trade route. There was no single Being, Kusasi or otherwise in the area currently known as Bawku town and it’s adjourning villages when Naa Ali and his entourage came in the early 1700s. Bawku settlement/town was freshly started by the Mamprusis, strategically to protect traders/travelers/merchants moving to and fro between Gambaga, the financial hub of Mamprugu and Tenkudugu, the first capital of the Mossi state.
Prior to Prince Ali establishing the Bawku settlement, his other brothers/cousins had already established the Sinnebaga and Binduri settlements with another one later establishing the Worikambo settlement. These Mamprusi Princes who were enskinned as chiefs of their independent founded settlements were territorial rulers/chiefs and not mere tribal chiefs. Any other tribe or person including the Kusasis, Bissas, Mossis, Hausas, Bimobas etc. who later migrated into their territory, automatically subjects him/herself under their rule and protection.
The settlement timelines of the Mamprusis and Kusasis in the Bawku area, are clear. The Mamprusis were in the area in the late 1600s to early 1700s not counting the days of Naa Gbewaa around the 1200s/1300s. With regards to the Kusasis, in a book written by eight Kusasi Scholars titled, ‘THE KUSAAS: AN INDIGENOUS PESPERCTIVE (2024)’ it’s written on pages 16, 17 & 22 that, the Kusasis migrated into the Bawku area in the 1800s and that “according to oral sources from Toende (Bawku West), when the Kusaas arrived, they met pockets of Bissa craftsmen and blacksmiths in some areas”. So, Mamprusis were in the Bawku area long before the arrival of the Kusasis from their ancestral homes of ZOAGA, BINGO AND YOUGA in present-day Burkina Faso.
J. K. G. Syme said in his book ‘THE KUSASIS-A SHORT HISTORY (1932)’ that ‘’Ali (Mamprusi) is the first chief of Bawku”. The significant word here is ‘Bawku’ and ‘Bawku’ is a territory with its boundaries and not a tribe. Naa Ali, the first chief of Bawku reigned in the 1720s, that’s over 300 years ago. Cpt. R. S. Rattray also in his book, ‘TRIBES OF THE ASHANTI HINTERLAND (1932)’ wrote that, “Bawk (Bawku) are really Mampruse, not Kusase, being founded by the ruling class.” Here again, another Anthropologists in the person of Rattray who conducted extensive work in Bawku says Bawku is Mamprusi land and its rulers/chiefs are Mamprusis.
To conclude, the Kusasi mantra that the Nayiri sent his sons to rule them, the Kusasis, is nothing but a fallacy, a concoction to justify their false claim to the Bawku chieftaincy and land.
Credit to voice of Mamprugu
