The plains of the White Volta and the Daka around Tamale, Yendi and Bimbilla.
The Dagbon kingdom of the Dagomba is dated to the fifteenth century (Naa Nyagse, about 1416-1432 in one reckoning; his conquest of the land and killing of many earth priests is the founding story), with the Mamprusi and Nanumba kingdoms of the same family; some web accounts push the founder Tohazie to the eleventh century, which no scholar we read supports. On 1 January 1200 the land is a decentralised society under earth priests (tindana), the aboriginal Dagbamba whom the tradition calls Dagbon Sablisi.
Who holds it
- Title
- Earth priests (tindamba) of each settlement
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
How things stand that morning
Independent communities; the later kings' horsemen are two centuries away.
Customs
The earth priest allots land and keeps the shrines; lineage elders; no chiefs over many villages.
Assemblies
Village elders and earth priests.
Where the sources disagree
- The brief allows the realm id mossi only for a defensible Mossi or Dagomba state on 1 January 1200: there is none here.
Evidence: Dagomba tradition (the drum history) recorded late; Wikipedia gives a fifteenth-century founding.
On the map: Drawn from the later Dagbon heartland.
Sources and studies
- Dagbon (Wikipedia)
- Researcher's general knowledge of the ethnography and linguistic geography of Ghana and Togo (present-day distributions), used only to place peoples whose 1200 seats are not recorded
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.