The Anufor (Chokosi): history of origins and settlement patterns

Abstract

ABSTRACT The early parts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were significant in the history of today’s Northern Ghana as far as migrations and wars were concerned. It was a period of internecine wars, thus a very important watershed in the history of West Africa when several microstates were in their formative years. This meant the marshalling of all resources possible, including the formation of alliances. The migration of the Anufor to their present location in Ghana and Togo at the behest of the Gonja and subsequently Mamprusi as mercenaries can be traced to the early seventeenth century. Oral traditions and archival sources point to a ‘clientele’ relationship between the Anufor and the kingdoms of Mamprusi, Dagomba, and Gonja. This paper examines the inherent peculiarities that facilitated the migration of the Anufor as mercenaries in ‘wars and battles for others and their contribution to state formation processes.