Recent from talks
Nothing was collected or created yet.
Salaga
View on Wikipedia
Salaga is a town and is the capital of East Gonja district, a district in the Savannah Region of north Ghana.[2][3] Salaga had a 2012 settlement population of 25,472 people.[1] Salaga was the largest slave market in the 18th and 19th centuries.[4]
Key Information
Etymology
[edit]The name Salaga comes from the Dagomba word "salgi" which means "To get used to a place of abode".[5]
History
[edit]

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Salaga served as a key market town, particularly for the busy regional kola trade, and controlling Salaga gave a monopoly over trade to the north and south.[6] Situated in the southernmost reaches of the Sahel, Salaga was referred to as "the Timbuktu of the south" for its cosmopolitan population and varied trade. Gonja, a powerful warrior kingdom, ruled Salaga and several other towns. However, being a cosmopolitan town, Salaga was inhabited by Hausas, Wangaras, Dagombas, Gurmas, and other groups from the region as well as the indigenous Gonja.
Salaga was central to the emergence of the Zabarima (emirate) as a power in the area that is now northern Ghana, when the scholar Alfa Hano and the warrior Gazari migrated here from their former homes south-east of Niamey in the 1860s.[7]
The Salaga market served as a transit point through the northern Sahel and the southernmost coast of the 'Sahel', as well as through the Dagomba towns of Kpabia and Yendi. This gave rise to the transport of cattle and groundnuts from Yendi via the Salaga market.[5] It also was the transit point through which kola was transported from modern day Ghana to northern Nigeria. During the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Salaga also served as an important market from where slaves were transported to the coast for export. In Salaga, there is a pond named "Wonkan bawa," which is a Huasa phrase that means "the bathing spot of slaves." There is also a young Baobab tree in the area that was formerly the Slave Market.[8] This is why a market in Jamestown is called the "Salaga Market": slaves originally shipped from the Salaga slave market were sold there.
In 1892, civil war broke out in Salaga, resulting in a mass exodus of mostly Zongo peoples out of the area.
Education
[edit]The town is served by Salaga Senior High School, established in 1976. The school is a mixed day and boarding school offering programmes in agriculture, business, home economics, visual arts, general arts and general science.[9]
Notable people
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b "World Gazetteer online". World-gazetteer.com. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007.
- ^ East Gonja district
- ^ "MP redeems campaign pledge in donating brand new motorcycles - MyJoyOnline.com". www.myjoyonline.com. Retrieved 2021-05-20.
- ^ "Salaga Slave Market; A potential tourist site". Graphic Online. Retrieved 2023-01-28.
- ^ a b The Evolution of War: A Study of Its Role in Early Societies By Maurice R. Davie
- ^ Salaga slave market. books.google.com.
- ^ copied Wilks, Ivor. "'He Was With Them': Malam Abu On The Zaberma Of The Middle Volta Basin." Sudanic Africa 4 (1993): 213-22.
- ^ "Salaga | About Ghana". ghana.peacefmonline.com. Retrieved 2023-01-28.
- ^ "Salaga Senior High". GhanaHighSchools.com. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
Further reading
[edit]- Jack Goody and J.A. Braimah, "Salaga: The Struggle for Power", London, Longmans, 1967.
- Johnson, Marion (1986). "The Slaves of Salaga". The Journal of African History. 27 (2): 341–362. doi:10.1017/S0021853700036707.
- Lovejoy, Paul E. (1982). "Polanyi's "Ports of Trade": Salaga and Kano in the Nineteenth Century". Canadian Journal of African Studies. 16 (2): 245–277. doi:10.2307/484296. JSTOR 484296.
External links
[edit]
Media related to Salaga at Wikimedia Commons- East Gonja District
Salaga
View on GrokipediaSalaga is a town in the East Gonja Municipality of Ghana's Savannah Region, historically established as a major inland market center in the 18th and 19th centuries for commodities including kola nuts and, prominently, slaves sourced from northern regions and traded southward to coastal ports for trans-Atlantic export or internal use.[1][2] Strategically positioned at the woodland-savannah ecotone, it facilitated extensive caravan trade routes connecting the Sahel to the Gold Coast, with annual slave volumes estimated at up to 15,000 individuals by European observers in the late 19th century.[1][3] Originally part of the Gonja Kingdom founded in the 16th century, Salaga came under Ashanti influence through military conquest, enhancing its role in regional power dynamics and commerce until British colonial interventions curtailed the slave trade post-1874.[4] Today, the site preserves remnants like the Slave Tree—where captives were tethered—and market wells, serving as a heritage attraction amid ongoing local efforts to commemorate its multifaceted trade legacy without modern ideological overlays.[2][4]
Geography
Location and Topography
Salaga serves as the administrative capital of the East Gonja Municipality within Ghana's Savannah Region, positioned in the southeastern portion of this northern area. The town is situated at approximately 8°33′N latitude and 0°31′W longitude.[5][6]
Its location places Salaga in the Guinea savanna ecological zone, acting as a transitional point between the expansive northern savannas and the more humid forest zones to the south, which historically aligned with north-south environmental gradients.[7][8]
The topography features predominantly flat to gently undulating plains, with elevations rarely exceeding 200 meters above sea level, drained by seasonal tributaries of the White Volta River. These characteristics include open savanna grasslands interspersed with wooded areas, subject to semi-arid conditions that constrain perennial agriculture due to variable rainfall and dry spells.[9][10]















