For those of you who don't know, the story of Bawku is akin to Apartheid South Africa.
The Kusasis historically did have not have chiefs in the form we know them today. We are historically an acephalous people and were organized around the clan system and led by a Tindan(Tingban-daan).
The Mamprusis on the other hand have always been organized around chiefs, and led by their head chief, the Nayiri. They are also largely a trading people.
History records that the Mamprusis used to travel to Tinkudugu in present day Burkina Faso to trade and were often robbed on their way back to Nalerigu of their wares. The Nayiri put some of his men in Bawku (which is a border town) to protect his subjects in their trade. In time, the mamprusi men around the Bawku area grew in number and the Nayiri started appointing them in turns as mamprusi community chiefs to watch over his subjects. This practice is common place even today, as almost all major ethnic groups in the diaspora have community chiefs.
The kusasis never resisted the Mamprusis having community chiefs in Bawku because the Mamprusis never attempted to interfere in landownership or asserted any form of authority over a kusasi man.
The advent of colonization with its policy of indirect rule is what has brought the Mamprusis in Bawku to their bizarre claim to the Bawku skin. The colonial powers, who had been used to using chiefs in the south and some parts of the north were quite surprised when the kusasis didn't have chiefs in the form that they (the colonialists) were used to. So they resorted to using the mamprusi community chiefs in Bawku and actually used them to appoint chief in all of the kusasi area spanning 26 divisions.
No sooner had the Mamprusi chiefs started exerting authority on the kusasis than the kusasis started resisting. We could not agree to be ruled in our own land! But of course, the Mamprusis had the support of the colonial master who used them to abuse and mistreat the poor kusasi man.
Ghana's independence struggles was also an independence fight for the kusasi man. We made our case to the departing colonial powers and Governor Listowell set up and 3 member committee led by the then Dormaahene. The findings of that committee was simple and straightforward; that Bawku belonged to kusasis and that Abugrago Azoka I had been validly selected and enskinned as Bawku-Naba and head chief of the kusasi state. The Mamprusis, being aggrieved by the findings of the committee fought the report and lost in the court of appeal (the highest court in Ghana then).
When Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, the NLCD government accused certain chiefs in Ghana as being Kwame Nkrumah loyalists and promulgated NLCD 112 to destool/deskin them. Abugrago Azoka lost his status but remained calm. We mad our case to government after government until the PNDC came along, and seeing the grave injustice in the Bawku situation, promulgated PNDL 75 in 1984. The Bawku skin was rightly returned to Abugrago Azoka.
Bawku enjoyed peace and progress. We all grew up together and knew each other as cousins ( mind you, there's hardly a mamprusi man or woman of full blood in Bawku, their mothers are mostly kusasis, bisa or moshie because the Nayiri didn't send them to Bawku with women), went to school together and played together.
In 2001, when the NPP came to power, the Mamprusis in Bawku, always believing in and trusting politicians to make them chiefs in Bawku started putting pressure on the government of the day to reverse the status quo in Bawku. Prez Kuffuor was emphatic and straightforward with them. He said he recognized the present Bawku-Naba as the legitimate occupant of the Bawku skin and that if they the Mamprusis had any case, they should go to court.
To the Supreme court they went to, challenging the legitimacy of the present Bawku-Naba under PNDL 75 and articles 270 and 277 of the 1992 constitution. The Supreme Court asked both parties to file their memorandum of issues. Seeing the emptiness of their case and strength of the kusasi case, the Mamprusis applied to withdraw with liberty to reapply. The Supreme Court granted their leave to withdraw but refused them liberty to reapply. I should think this ruling is simple and straightforward enough for anyone to discern.
The Mamprusis in Bawku, potentially being encouraged or motivated by their leaders in their fatherland, have been up in arms till date. What they are seeking is that, they be made chiefs to rule over the kusasis. That Bawku, which is the capital of the kusasi state, is part of the territory of the Nayiri. This is the apartheid we speak of and this claim with respect, must stink in the nostrils of every decent mind!
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