USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ghana's rival Dagbon royals risk pulling the country apart

Ghana's rival Dagbon royals risk pulling the country apart

In Yendi's palaces, competitors for the throne threaten to reignite a
murderous conflict between the Abudu and Andani families

Afua Hirsch, West Africa correspondent, in Yendi
Friday July 6 2012
guardian.co.uk


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/05/ghana-royal-rivalry-threatens-violence


Yendi [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yendi" title="]'s glory days are
far behind it. Set in the arid savannah of northern Ghana, the town
was once the seat of the ruler of the 15th-century kingdom of Dagbon.
Now, it has the air of a small and impoverished provincial capital.
The only remaining clues to its pre-colonial might are its plethora of
royal palaces.

The palaces are home to two rival branches of Dagbon royalty, the
Abudu and Andani families, whose competing claims to the throne have
been resolved for 200 years by a system of alternating succession. Ten
years ago, however, on 27 March 2002, members of the Abudu family
stormed the palace of the Andani king, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II [http://
articles.latimes.com/2005/feb/27/news/adfg-ghana27" title="],
decapitating and immolating the old ruler and murdering up to 40 other
royal servants and advisers.

Now, after more than a decade of simmering conflict, the dispute
between the two lines seems set to boil over, tipping the region into
conflict. The dispute has brought development in Dagbon to a halt and
may even, some fear, pull the country apart.

Abdoulaye Yakubu Andani, the "caretaker regent" of Dagbon who is his
family's candidate to succeed the murdered king, lives in the Gbewaa
palace [http://www.modernghana.com/news/21703/1/government-to-restore-
gbewaa-palace.html" title="], newly built by the government of Ghana
to a level of luxury that far distinguishes Andani from most of his
subjects. Neatly framed pictures of former ya-nas [kings] adorn the
wall, and a 52-inch Sony Bravia flatscreen TV ? current retail price
in Ghana about ?3,000 ? is fixed for ease of viewing from the throne.

"What happened in 2002 was inhuman," Andani said. "Forty people
murdered in cold blood. So many questions remain unanswered."

Next door, the ruins of the old Gbewaa Palace remain a crime scene,
surrounded by barbed wire, riddled with bullet holes and watched over
by five military guard posts.

The Abudu family seat a few hundred metres away is different again.

Peeling paint and dangling electrical wiring speak of neglect and
poverty. The throne is set in a small clearing in a pile of junk at
one end of a corridor, beneath a dirty fan. The only decoration is a
collection of useful phone numbers scribbled on the wall and a showbiz-
style calendar featuring the Abudu pretender, Abdulai Mahamadu, known
as the Bolin Lana. Its glossy pages show a young man who looks a
decade younger than his official age of 38, wearing his trademark red
animal skin headpiece adorned with various spiritual and magical
regalia.

Mahamadu spoke only through his guardian, an old man with two teeth
and a straggly beard who explains that it is not befitting for
Mahamadu to address anyone directly. The new Gbewaa Palace was their
true home, he insisted, and as long as it was occupied by Andanis,
they would continue their struggle.

If there is one thing Abudus and Andanis agree on, it is that politics
has played a toxic role in their rivalry, turning the relationship
from tolerance ? the communities once intermarried and lived side by
side ? to conflict. With national elections due in December, observers
fear the growing anger between the families will spill over into
violence during the campaign.

The perpetrators of the Yendi massacre [http://www.ghanaweb.com/
GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=67482" title="] have never
been brought to justice. A trial last year of 15 Abudus resulted in
acquittal [http://www.thestatesmanonline.com/pages/news_detail.php?
newsid=9957&section=1" title="], while a manifesto promise by
Ghana's ruling NDC party of an official inquiry into the murders never
materialised.

The Andanis insist the party in government at the time, the NPP ?
currently in opposition ? played an active role in the massacre, which
it vehemently denies.

"Where were the police when our palace was under attack?" Abdoulaye
Yakubu Andani said. "Where were the security agents? And the weapons
that were used ? you wonder that the people of this town had such
sophisticated weapons and were firing like people who were trained. We
believe that some people were brought in from elsewhere."

The Abudus, who admit members of their family perpetrated the killing,
likewise have their suspicions as to who fomented the violence.

"The pictures of weapons and ammunition retrieved from the palace that
emerged after the events of 2002 included a machine gun that you can
mount and shoot, countless AK47s, the private car of the ya-na with
several guns in the boot," said Dr Ziblim Iddi, a professor of
political science at the University of Ghana who speaks for the Abudu
family, implying that the Andanis were prepared for a violent
confrontation.

The Abudus claim a legitimate grievance against the Andanis. They are
still seething from a decision by the military regime that ruled Ghana
in the 1970s to strip the then-Abudu king, with about 60 chiefs
beneath him, of his title.

Abdulai IV ? Mahamadu's father ? died in 1988 but has still not been
buried. This issue has played a central role in the deadlock between
the two sides. Dagbon is a place of deeply held and ancient beliefs,
with a power structure reliant on soothsayers and charms for the most
crucial of decisions. "The funeral can only be done in the Gbewaa
Palace," said Mba-Dugu Iddrisu, senior adviser to the Bolin Lana. "If
the funeral is not performed, he cannot reach the place of the
ancestors ? how can anything then be resolved?"

The Abudus believe the Andanis have created their own fate by
endorsing the events of 1974. "[Stripping a king of his title] is not
known in Dagbon," said Mba-Dugu Iddrisu. "We have our traditional
beliefs. If you wrong the tradition, if something is forbidden and you
go against the gods, you will be punished for it."

The irony of the situation, which has seen countless failed attempts
at mediation and even a formal roadmap to peace led by another famous
Ghanaian king, the king of Ashanti, is that the entire community is
suffering.

The failure to agree on who should become the new ya-na has created a
power vacuum, which leaves the region without anyone able to sign
leases and process land sales.

"There are 20,000 leases pending in the region," said Andani. "We are
talking about people coming to invest and create jobs."

"I feel it's unfortunate that if someone dies, it means that the
citizens in that community should not eat. I am the regent, acting in
the capacity of my father. I don't see why I should not sign leases.
It is for the benefit of everyone."

The crisis has seriously affected investment in the north, according
to a source at the government land agencies who did not want to be
named. "Most demand for land in this region is from outsiders who want
to develop land for commercial use," he said. "A lot of banks are
coming here, looking for land to develop and property to buy ? filling
stations and office buildings should be springing up. The crisis is
holding all this up, and that makes this even more serious."

The failure of development in Dagbon ? which is known somewhat
ironically as the development capital of West Africa with its plethora
of NGOs and initiatives such as women's shea butter [http://
www.akomaskincare.co.uk/" title="] collectives ? is a cause as well as
a result of the conflict in Dagbon, as both sides in the dispute
acknowledge that their most formidable enemy is poverty.

"Life in Yendi is hard. We don't have money. As soon as we have
finished school we leave ? to go to Accra or to other countries. When
I finish school I want to go to the USA," said Mohamed Abdullai, an 18-
year-old student, a member of the Abudu family and follower of the
Bolin Lana.

"The problems in Yendi are very, very extreme," said Baba Idrissu, the
NDC's MP for Yendi. "There is an absence of security, it puts off
investors. Who wants to invest in an area that still has the
propensity to have war? Most of the NGOs have fled. When there is any
little skirmish the first they do is burn businesses."

As Ghana's elections approach, the clear allegiances between rival
political parties, and the centuries-old family feud in Dagbon have
prompted unease in a region already predisposed to swiftly escalating
violence.

"We have plenty guns. They came from Europe, from America. We go to
buy guns. If people misbehave or they are ignorant, we kill them",
said Abdullai, voicing his anger at the refusal of the Andanis to
allow the funeral of Abdulai IV.

It is the potential of this anger to spill over into other parts of
Ghana that causes the most serious alarm here. Dagombas, as members of
the Dagbon kingdom are known, are the second largest ethnic group in
Ghana and by no means confined to the rural north of the country.

"The ya-na murder set a precedent for violent murder, and people are
very bitter that their king was treated in this way," said Andani.
"Any crack in the Dagbon kingdom is going to escalate everywhere else
in the country."


guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2012

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