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78.

INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH  REPORTS

SIGNIFICANCE OF WRITTEN AND ORAL

TRADITIONS  IN THE SOCIAL  ORGAN!ZTTlON
~-~- 

OF THE WATA"

My  investigation  aims at concentrating on the
important  function that  the  inter-related  oral tradi-
tions, history  and religion have  as both an expression
of unity as well as that of social divisiveness  amongst
the Wala  community  at Wa, Northern Ghana.

The Wala people  are a heterogeneous  group whose

background  can be traced to the conquering  Dagomba,
Mamprussi  and Muslim Mande peoples of the sixteenth
century.  Till now, the Walas claim no differences in
the cultural traditions between themselves  and the
latter groups.  Thus, it could be inferred  that the
Wala culture does not have clearly defined  character-
istics of its own.  Yet, it has become  increasingly
clear to me during the intermittent  eight weeks that
I have  spent  at Wa that oral and  Islamic traditions
have  a considerable  sociological and psychological sig-
nificance  in the present  life of the community.  An
understanding  of the Wala characteristic traits  (what
are their cultural boundaries as distinct  from that of
their origins?) can only be viewed  from a study of the
function  of their oral and religious traditions which
respectively express  stability and change  in the com-
munity.

It could be said that the existence  of the Wala

people was, from-the very start, based  on cultural as-
similation and acculturation.  Arriving  as conquerors,
these different peoples  settled  and spread  among other
cultural  groups, intermarried,  integrated  and united
by calling  themselves Wala thus expressing  a cultural
and social cohesiveness.  Yet, to borrow  a terminology
from Redfield, this led to a "great tradition" inter-

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INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH REPORTS

79.

acting with a "little tradition" - that is, a literate,
historical and more universal tradition essentially re-
ligious, lending prestige to the community, and a local
tradition expressing the  'basic1 culture of the society.
A social and psychological consideration of the two
traditions  (the reflective versus the unreflectiye) will
lead to a greater understanding of the role that cul-
ture contacts and Islam had on the social organization
of the community.

A social hierarchy evolved amongst the Wala,

not only within Wa itself with its Wala quarters -
twenty in all - but also between the town and the sur~"
rounding and scattered Wala villages, and this seems
to be essentially based on genealogy and religious tra-
ditions though added to this is modern education and
Islamic teachings.

Wa is the center for the Paramount Chief of the

Wala whose population is approximately 130,000 (1960
census).  The town itself - of 16,000 inhabitants - is
clearly settled according to cultural groupings.
Having made a detailed plan of the town, I found it dis-
tinctly divided into two sections.  In the north are the
Wala and in the South, the "foreigners" - the Lobis,
Gonjas, Dagatis, Hausas and other cultural groups some
of which had long been settled in Wa.  The original in-
habitants of Wa, called Sukpayiri, live in that section
and are the Tindambas or landowners thus playing an im-
portant function in the political  (distribution) and
religious  (protection) concerns dealing with the land.
Yet, they consider themselves  and are considered now
as Wala though their origin is distinctly different
and it seems that marriages between the "real" Walas
and themselves are infrequent.  Each of the Wala quarters
then has its own genealogy, its tradition of origins and
is consequantly placed in a separate social position in

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80.

INDIVIDUAL  RESEARCH  REPORTS

*•

t.

the complex political  and religious organization of the
community.  For example, the Limamyiri quarter, where
the religious  leader resides, could be considered  as
the intellectual elites of the town and a girl marry-
ing within that  quarter would heighten  the prestige of
her own  family.  The Nayiri quarter  is the political
leader for it is there that the Princes  live and they
hold  an important  function  in the Wa Na's  (the Chief's)
court.  On the other hand, since the 1930*5, a new is-
lamic movement was  introduced  (now without  a civil
war erupting) and brought  a third  level  in the social
organisation of the town.  It is the liberal Ahmaddiya.
movement  (hailing  from Pakistan) which also set up its
own  leaders, mosques, schools and quarters  and many
individuals were either banned  from or have broken ties
with their original  family quarters.

All these are factions that have brought  about

conflicts within the Wala community  in Wa.  Yet, a
unity and cohesiveness overshadow these  differences
when a consideration of the town versus the villagers
"Fufule", expressing  an all-inclusive political, cul-
tural and religious  inferiority, a concept  of the
urban versus the rural.  Yet, by tradition, the chief-
taincy of Wa  itself  is based upon  a system of rotation
among  four villages now very  small in size.

I propose to view these conflicts  counterbalanced
by a social "esprit de corps" that  is brought  forth ver-
sus the villages  through a study of the oral and reli-
gious traditions of the Wala.  In this case, this can-
not be limited  to Wa alone but to a systematic  contact
with the Wala villages whose own considerations  of the
townspeople  and of themselves would be expressed  in
their own local traditions.

A sociological  and psychological evaluation of

INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH  REPORTS

81

the oral traditions  of the Wala  (primarily of Wa) -
including  their artistic and religious traditions -
will add a greater perspective  to an understanding of
the values of this heterogeneous  society whose  social
organization  is based primarily on its religious and
historical traditions.

Mona  Fikry.