Mamprusi people
ethnic group in Ghana
The Mamprusi are an ethnic group in northern Ghana and Togo. Estimates are that there are about 200,000 Mamprusi living in the Northern Regions of Ghana as of 2013. They speak Mampruli, one of the Gur languages. In Ghana, the Mamprusi live mainly in Nalerigu, Gambaga, Walewale, and their surrounding towns and villages in the North East Region.
History
The Mamprugu Kingdom is one of the oldest Kingdoms in the territory that would afterwards be named The Gold Coast, and subsequently, Ghana. The Mamprusi claim to eldership is based on Cognatic Primogeniture, where succession is through the oldest male child. However, Gbewaa did not practise this, as he designated a younger son Foɣu/Kufoɣu to rule over his eldest child Kachaɣu and his eldest son Zirile.
The Kingdom was founded around the 13th century by Naa Gbewaa at Pusiga, a village 14 kilometres from Bawku. The Mamprusi people revere Pusiga as their ancestral home and Naa Gbanwaah's tomb is in Pusiga.
The Kingdom spans most of the North East, Northern Region of Ghana, portions of Northern Togo, and into Burkina Faso.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q641337. The Library of Congress control number is sh85080287. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2013.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mamprusi people” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.