The savanna between the Comoé and the Black Volta, from Bondoukou and the hills west of Begho north through Bouna to Loropéni and Gaoua.
The Kulango (Koulango) and the Lorhon (Loron, Lohron), Gur-speaking peoples, are its old inhabitants: one tradition brings the Kulango here early in the second millennium, at the same time as the first Senufo. The stone walls of Loropéni and nine smaller ruins near Gaoua, at least a thousand years old by the UNESCO listing and at their height in the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, are assumed (not proved) to be the work of Lorhon or Kulango lords of the gold trade. The country holds the placer gold of the Black Volta.
The Bouna kingdom founded by Bunkani, the Dyula towns of Bouna and Bondoukou, the Lobi settlers and the Abron of Gyaman are all later. On 1 January 1200 the land is held by Kulango and Lorhon villages, and the Loropéni enclosure may already stand.
Who holds it
- Title
- Earth priests and lineage heads; the Kulango later had earth chiefs before the Bouna kings
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
How things stand that morning
Independent communities; Begho, on the south-eastern edge, governs itself.
Customs
Earth priests and lineages; gold washing in the dry season (attested later, women's work among the Lobi and Kulango); farming.
Assemblies
Village elders.
Places of note
- Loropéni ruins: Stone enclosure, at least 1,000 years old by the UNESCO listing
Where the sources disagree
- The Lorhon are said on Wikipedia to be documented in Kong by the tenth century; the link with Loropéni is called vague there.
- The French Wikipedia account that brings the Kulango here early in the second millennium brings the Lobi at the same time, against the Lobi's own tradition of a later crossing of the Black Volta; we follow the Lobi tradition and leave them off this ground for 1200.
Evidence: Archaeology of the Loropéni ruins (dating not precise in what we read); traditions; later ethnography.
On the map: Drawn from the later Kulango, Lorhon and Lobi lands; Begho and the Bono country lie on its south-eastern edge.
Sources and studies
- Ruins of Loropéni (Wikipedia; UNESCO World Heritage listing of 2009)
- Sénoufos (French Wikipedia, citing Delafosse 1908-1909, Holas 1957, T. F. Ouattara 1999, Sinali Coulibaly 1961 and 1978)
- Bondoukou (French Wikipedia, quoting L.-G. Binger, Du Niger au golfe de Guinée, 1892)
- 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.