Rol de enfermería y la teoría del autocuidado según Dorothea Orem

The committee appointed by Lord Listowel on the Bawku Chieftaincy (BC)³⁵ crisis confirmed that CI has become a source of conflict in the BEM between the Kusasi and the Mamprusi people. The report by the committee indicated that in the 1800‟s when the slave trade was still flourishing in Ghana, and particularly in the North, Na Atabia³⁶, sent Prince Ali to establish a

„post‟ at Bawku and guard the route between Nalerigu and Gambaga in the south and Tenkundugu and Wagadugu in the north. According to the report by the committee, this was meant to safeguard the Mamprusi and white traders passing through Bawku to the south as robbers and burglars frequently attacked these traders.

35 This is based on the report of the Committee Appointed by the Acting Governor-General to inquire into and report its findings on the claim of Abugrago Azoka to have been elected or appointed and installed as chief of the Kusasi area (Bawku Affairs) and interviews with key political figures in BEM.

36 Paramount chief and the overlord of the Mamprusi Traditional Area. He was also called the Nayiri: the landlord of Nalerigu. He was responsible for enskinning Mamprusi chiefs to the Kusasi area)

The findings of the committee also testified that the Kusasis did not have a centralised system of authority (rule). They were mostly organised under the fetish priests; the Tindaana³⁷ or clan heads, who performed the functions of chiefs (Rattray 1932:374-379, Tonah 2007:207).

The Mamprusis on the other hand were organised under chiefs with centralised system of administration. The British who had had contacts with chiefs expected to find them in the Kusasi area. J.K.G Syme notes

“It has been suggested that in time to come the Tindaanas of the Kusasis would have evolved into chiefs in the real meaning of the word. They never got the chance to do it in their own leisurely way, however, for the British suddenly arrived from Gambaga and then came to the Kusasi asking for the chiefs. They had found them in Gambaga and expected to do the same in Kusasi, where, however, they were not in evidence”³⁸. According to the findings of the committee, Prince Ali, with the help of the British succeeded in establishing a firm „post‟ on Kusasi land. This brought the Bawku area³⁹ directly under the governance of the Mamprusis, making Bawku an extra-territory of the paramount chief of the Mamprusis⁴⁰. The Mamprusis employed carrots and sticks to consolidate territorial control over Bawku. A number of Princes governed Bawku until the death of Awuni, Bawku-Naba (chief of Bawku). Following his, not less than six (6) Mamprusi princes contested for the chieftaincy. These candidates went to the paramount chief of the Mamprusis to be appointed Bawku-Naba⁴¹. The report by the committee further noted that Prince Mahama Yiremia was appointment on the 6^th June 1957 as the Bawku-Naba. However, I deducted through my interviews that as the wind of freedom and political divorce from external rule and oppression was blowing throughout the Gold Coast⁴² in the 1950‟s, the Kusasis became more conscious about self-determination and oppression from alien power, in this case the Nayiri.

37 Overseer of the community land (The Tindaana was the custodian of the land and the religious leader of the Kusasis.

According to history,’’ the Gur believed in and recognized the existence of an otiose high god whose name contains the root

‘’Ngmini’’, ‘’Ngmini’’ and in others, ‘’We’’ and ‘’Wuni’’. Below this god were tutelary spirits, the chief among which was the female earth shrine, known as ‘’Tenge’’. The custodian of the ‘’Tenge’’ was the Tindaana or principal mediator between the people, the

‘’Tenge’’ and the ancestral spirits of his particular area. The Tindaana had spiritual rather than secular control over the people residing in the area’’ (Brukum 2007:100, Rattray 1932).

38 J. K. G Syme was the British District Commissioner of the Kusasi Area; he has also been quoted by Steven Tonah 2007 and Lund 2003

39 Kusasi area and Bawku area refers to the same thing

40 The Nayiri was the paramount chief of the Mamprusis and was responsible for nominating and installing chiefs to the Bawku area

41 The Nayiri of the Mamprusis lived at Nalerigu.

42The Gold Coast was the old name of now modern Ghana. When the Portuguese, the first Europeans to arrive at the coast in 1471 (15^th century) came, they saw vast quantities of gold between the rivers Ankobra and Volta, so they named the place Mina, which in their language meant mine. The British colonialist later adopted Gold Coast.

Around the same time, the Mamprusi Princes were gathering at Nalerigu to elect and install a chief for the Kusasi area, the Kusasis also gathered to elect and enskin Abugrago Azoka as the Bawku-Naba and the Head of the Kusasis. To the Kusasis, „‟colonialism and imperialism did not only mean British rule, but also the subjugation to an alien African ruler - the Nayiri and his representatives‟‟ (Ladouceur 1979:124).

From the above historical data on CI in the studied area, it comes out that the struggle for the BC became a tribal affair between the Kusasi and the Mamprusi. This apparently, according the government report, resulted in a number of confrontations between the tribes, which drew the attention of the Governor-General of Ghana at the time, Lord Listowel to form a committee to investigate the issue. The committee concluded that Abugrago Azoka was not only appointed but also elected by his own people and installed as the chief of the Kusasi area in place of the usual Nayiri appointed Bawku-Naba. The committee also ruled that the old method of appointing a chief to go to Bawku and rule the Kusasis is dictatorial and greatly resented by Kusasis. The committee summed up that, the Kusasis would devolve politically and socially as well as economically better under their elected chief than under an imported chief whom they resent.

The Mamprusis took the case to an appeal court headed by K.A. Korsah. The claim was that, the interpretation by the committee that Abugrago Azoka has been elected and installed as the chief of the Kusasi area is not the same as saying that he has been installed as the chief of the Bawku area, since the chief of the Kusasi area and the chief of the Bawku area are not the same. The court however ruled in favour of the Kusasis that the chief of Bawku and the chief of the Kusasi area are synonymous therefore; the two titles can be interchanged.

The field observation and interviews suggest that succession dispute to the chieftaincy throne was the genesis of the BCC. This observation compares with earlier study that ethnic conflicts in the country relate to chieftaincy succession (Tsikata and Seini 2004:25). Steven Tonah similarly observed the issue of chieftaincy succession among the Dagbon people in Northern Ghana as a cause of the murder of the king of Dagbon (2007:14). During the fieldwork, it was observed that unlike the case of Dagbon where the Andanis and Abudus had the same grandfather and alternate succession, the Mamprusis and the Kusasis do not alternate succession among them. This winner takes all affair may have contributed to the observed fierce nature of ascending to the throne. The Mamprusis have their own chiefs while the Kusasis also have their own chiefs but the issue to contend with between these two ethnic

groups is about paramount chief, as the Mamprusis do not recognise the Kusasi Bawku-Naba as a paramount chief.