The History of Navrongo

Little is known of the history of the ancestors of Navrongo, the Gurunsi. According to oral tradition the Gurunsi originally came from the western Sudan passing through the Sahel. Their presence was not recorded until the Mossi people moved North around the 1500, from the northern region of present-day Ghana, to create the various Mossi kingdoms. Diverse accounts relate the numerous incursions by the Mossi into the area to sack the villages and capture slaves for sale. Thanks to their fierce resistance the ancestors of the Gurunsi escaped the domination of the Mossi kingdom. The Gurunsi territories remained, however, for many years, the theater of unceasing wars, wars of conquest first, which became pillaging operations after the Mossi had forgone their attempts to establish supremacy over the Gurunsi territories. The historical background of the Gurunsi brings into relief two essential attributes: their spirit of independence and their capacity of defense. It was these wars and the search for better hunting grounds that pressed some Gurunsi people to settle around the present day town of Zecco in Ghana's northern neighbor, Burkina Faso.cont.reading