The Ghana Collection Dagaare Songs of

Nandom

The British Library Trevor Wiggins Collection

Trevor Wiggins Ghanaian Collection Trevor Wiggins made extensive recordings in Ghana during the 1990s, focusing on the Dagaare people and their xylophone or "gyil" music, as well as recording various other instrumental and vocal music.

One such instrumental recording is of the gonje or goge, a Nigerian stringed instrument which is played with

a bow. The string is of horsehair and the main body is a hemispherical gourd with a skin covering. Some of the xylophone or gyil recordings include demonstrations of the tuning of the xylophones and, also, the "signature tunes" of the performers.

(Source British Library)

Nandom

Nandom is the capital town of the Nandom Municipal of the Upper West Region of Ghana. Nandom town and

the multiple villages that surround it to the north, south, east, and west are inhabited by Dagara people. The Dagara of the Nandom municipal & the Dagaaba to the south of Nandom are the same ethnic group, though

they speak two different dialects of the same language. The people of Nandom speak the Lobr dialect, and

the Dagaaba to the south speak Ngmere (or Central Dàgááre). People in Nandom use the label 'Dagara' for

the language and the people and southern speakers us the label 'Dagaaba' for the people and Dagaare for

the language. These are, however, different pronunciations of the same language rather than names of the

2 dialects, as many people have taken them to be. The two dialects of the language are mutually intelligible. Nandom used to be part of the Lawra-Nandom District. It became a district by itself in 2012 and in 2020 it became a municipal, called the Nandom Municipal, with a parliamentary representative in the Parliament of Ghana in the capital city of Accra. Nandom town is eight kilometres (five miles) east of the Volta River which is the natural border between Ghana and neighbouring Burkina Faso. There is a road running west of Nandom to the River Volta ending at the village of Dabagteng. Sixteen kilometres (10 mi) north of Nandom is a town called Hamile where there is a formal border between Ghana and Burkina Faso with customs and immigration offices. Many of the towns and villages across the border in southern Burkina Faso also speak the same dialect as the Dagara of Nandom. Other dialects such as Wiile and Ule are, also spoken in Burkina Faso.

The Language

Dagaare is the language of the Dagaaba people of Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast. It has been described as a dialect continuum that also includes Waale and Birifor. Dagaare language varies in dialect stemming from other family languages including: Dagbane, Waale, Mabia, Gurene, Mampruli, Kusaal, Buli, Niger-Congo, and many other sub languages resulting in around 3 million Dagaare speakers. Throughout the regions of native Dagaare speakers the dialect comes from Northern, Central, Western, and Southern areas referring to the language differently. Burkina Faso refers to Dagaare as Dagara and Birifor to natives in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. The native tongue is still universally known as Dagaare. Amongst the different dialects, the standard for Dagaare is derived from the Central region’s dialect. Southern Dagaare (or Waale) also stems from the Dagaare language and is known to be commonly spoken in Wa and Kaleo. Ethnologue divides Dagaare into three languages: Southern/Central Dagaare language, which is spoken mainly in Ghana Northern Dagara language, which is spoken mainly in Burkina Faso Dagaari Dioula, which is spoken mainly in Burkina Faso, and has significant influence from the genetically unrelated Dioula language.

(Source Wikipedia)

This music belongs to the British Library. All the music of this page has been recorded and preserved by the British Library Sound Archive under World and Traditional Music and can also be found on their website with more detailed information.

To find out more information please visit the British Library Sound Archive

Source: The British Library Sound Archive

Trevor Wiggins Collection from South British Library Collection

Official British Library Sound Archive Website - World and Traditional Music