Tamale: Clearing the Air

Tamale is the capital of the Northern Region. Bolgatanga is the capital of the Upper East Region of Ghana and Wa is the capital of the Upper West Region. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you can’t seem to figure out which is the capital of which, google it!

These three regions are independent regions, geographically. They are not one region even though they may share similar cultural elements like the Damba festival, sagibo/sagim; what you would call tuo zaafi (T.Z.). Even the local languages run into one another because many of the languages spoken here belong to the Mole-Dagbanli group of languages. I will be speaking mostly about the Northern Region because that is where I spent most of my life.

Tamale is a ten to twelve hour drive from the nation’s capital. Don’t bulge your eyes at me. The distance does not make it a different planet altogether. You can always fly if you can’t sit in a bus for that long. That takes fourty-five (45) minutes to one (1) hour.

About the language; as far as I know, Hausa is originally a Nigerian language. It may have been one of the languages widely spoken in the Northern Region but it is not the same today. So the older generation may be fluent in it. For example my parents and grandmother speak Hausa but I do not, neither do many of my contemporaries. So if you meet me and I tell you that I am from Tamale and you speak Hausa to me, don’t be surprised if I look at you weirdly because I just don’t speak it. And it is okay that I don’t. My being Muslim does not automatically give me the license to speak it. In the mosques that I have been to, the sermon is usually said in Dagbanli. So do not dare conclude that my inability to speak Hausa translates into religious inauthenticity. 

During my first Eid in Accra, my friends wished me a “Barka da Sallah”. For a period of time, I did not know how to respond. I’d always giggle and nod politely because I was too ashamed to ask how to respond to that. It was only after I had called my mother to ask her how to respond to that was I able to comfortably engage in that discourse. Don’t get me wrong, I love languages. I wish I spoke Hausa and so many other Ghanaian languages.

Do I know everyone who lives in “the north”? Absolutely not! How about I don’t know every single person in my neighbourhood? So when you ask me where I come from and I say, Tamale, Don’t ask me if I know Abu and add insult to injury by saying he comes from “the north”. “The north” is not a hamlet where everybody knows everybody.

I don’t look like a northerner? So what do I look like? An alien? Tell me, how are northerners supposed to look like? Do we walk around with tags on our foreheads that say “I am a northerner”? We really need to put a stop to this needless stereotyping; it does not put food on the table neither does it enhance our development as a people. It only reinforces our ignorance.

And when you ask my name and I tell you, don’t ask me if I have another name. If everyone else I know can say my name perfectly, so can you. What is the use of your eating okro if you can’t say a trisyllabic name?

It is perfectly okay to ask questions for clarity; don’t let your ignorance eat you up.

For all the visitors coming to the Northern Region in droves today and in the future, use the opportunity to learn more about the place. Talk to people; kill the ignorance. When you go back home, share your experience with others. Let’s work together to break these stereotypes one person at a time.

We love people. We are very hospitable (you have no idea how much). And we love to talk about our culture. It does not hurt to ask.

(Signed: The Tamale Ambassador)