Chieftaincy tussle brews conflict in northern town

Police and soldiers are maintaining a dusk to dawn curfew for a fourth week in the northern Ghanaian town of Bimbilla after a long running chieftaincy dispute erupted in violence, said local officials. “There is still an uneasy calm in the area. The curfew will be reviewed depending on the security situation in the area to ensure that no one starts any trouble under the cover of darkness,” top local government official, Salifu Sa’eed, told IRIN. “The situation will remain fragile until a substantive person is chosen to occupy the vacant throne,” he warned. The throne has been vacant since the death of chief Na Abarika three years ago. Supporters of two rivals for the vacant paramount chieftaincy of the Nanumba ethnic group clashed in their main town Bimbilla on 9 January. Scores of people were rushed to hospital with gunshot and machete wounds, though there were no fatalities. Local newspapers say the violence in Bimbilla, which lies over 400 kilometres north of the capital Accra, started after supporters of one candidate for the throne blamed a power cut at a child’s naming ceremony on supporters of their rival. Analysts say the incident is typical of how small, even domestic matters, can bring underlying tensions over chieftaincy bubbling violently to the surface. Ghana has a powerful and complex chieftaincy system that British colonisers bolstered and encouraged. Since independence, politicians have courted their support, and their role in solving land tenure disputes has become more important as the population has grown and land become more valuable. Arguably the most powerful chief in Ghana is the Ashantehene, the King of the Ashanti, one of Ghana’s largest and most influential ethnic groups. President John Kufuor is an Ashanti and his party, the ruling New Patriotic Party, has its power base in the Ashanti region. Bimbilla lies only 60 kilometres south of Yendi, where in March 2002 the Ya Naa, the King of the Dagomba ethnic group, was beheaded and killed together with 29 clansmen in similar violent clashes. The Ya Naa’s head has never been found - nor his murderers - and plans to bury his remains have been repeatedly delayed over fears of more violence. The Northern Regional House of Chiefs, a traditional council made up of paramount chiefs from across the region, is due to rule on the Bimbilla impasse in March, but previous meetings have only fanned the flames of discontent. “These clashes started when the regional house of chiefs resumed deliberations. Certainly, the delay in coming out with a final ruling has increased desperation and anxiety among the contesting clans who are both actively championing their cause,” Sa’eed said. Experts warn that though Ghana is regarded as one of the most politically stable countries in West Africa, such bitter chieftaincy and ethnic conflicts could derail both stability and development programmes. “These conflicts can become a national threat if they are left unattended. We should not describe them as local small conflicts. They can accumulate and foment into bigger crises especially when they assume political connotations,” Emmanuel Bombande, Executive Director of the West African Peace Building Network, a conflict resolution organisation, told IRIN. In 1994 and 1995, Bimbilla was the epicentre of bloody wars between the Nanumbas and another ethnic group, the Kokombas. A seemingly minor disagreement over the price of guinea fowl on a local market triggered “the guinea fowl wars”. Fighters used AK-47s in a conflict that killed 2,000 people, internally displaced 200,000 more and saw over 400 villages destroyed. Peace was restored only after the government sent soldiers to enforce a state of emergency.