The paramount chief of Kpembe Traditional Area in the East Gonja municipality of the Savannah region, Kpembewura Banbange Ndefoso IV, has explained why there are no chieftaincy disputes in Gonjaland, unlike other traditional areas.
Kpembewura Ndefoso says as far as the entire Gonjaland is concerned, kingships have been documented orally and in writing so that if a chief passes away, selecting a successor does not lead to litigation and chaos.
The paramount chief gave the explanations when a team from the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts and its agencies, paid a courtesy call on him at his palace in Salaga, the municipal capital.
The call was to inform the Kpembewura about their mission on his land to celebrate the 2025 Emancipation and Panafest.
Kpembewura Banbange Ndefoso IV explained that “this is Gonja. The Capital city of East Gonja. The Gonja seat is a very large empire. It’s a very great empire. It’s very big. In Kpembe here, we have three sections. We have Singbewu, that is a section, headed by Singbewura, we have Kenyanse, which is section headed by Kanyasewura, then we have Lepo, which is also headed by the Kanukulewura.
“They also ascend to the throne of Kpembe. Its just like a triangle thing. It moves from point to point. I hail from Singbe and it’s the same as the Gonja Kingdom. We have the Eastern part of Gonja, we have the Central part of Gonja and we have Western part of Gonja and our overlord is the Yagbonwura.”
He explained that “the Yagbonwura also has about five or seven sons who also ascend to that throne.
“The first born or son is the Daboya chief, followed by me, the Kpembewura, the second born, then third, through to the fourth and then Kusaug, who is the last born. The throne also rotates through us, the sons. That is how the Gonja Kingdom is so our kingdom is very big.”
On the Panafest and Emancipation Day celebrations, the Kpembewura said “Salaga was the trade center where slaves were sold.”
“When we mention of the slave trade, Salaga should come first. There wasn’t any place that you could get slaves to buy apart from Salaga so there are a lot of tourist attraction centers in my area that needs to be tapped.”
The Chief Executive Officer for the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Maame Houadjeto, whose speech was read by the Deputy CEO in charge of Marketing and Special Duties, Gilbert Abeiku Aggrey Santana said Panafest and Emancipation is one of the biggest tourism celebrations on the continent.
He said Africans were living as one people until the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade came to divide them.
“Salaga as we know, is one of the slave trade routes that we cannot forget when we want to reminisce how these heritage sites are being visited.”
By Timothy Antw-Otoo|OnuaNews
