Tallensi

By Teferi Abate Adem

Talensi, Talansi, Talense, Tale, Talen, Talene. Major sub-groups are Tallis ("real Tallensi”) and Namoos (assimilated newcomers).  

The Tallensi are a group of sedentary farmers living in widely scattered compounds in northern Ghana.  They constitute a homogenous group both culturally and linguistically, but do not show strong political unity as an ethnic group in the sense ethnicity is commonly manifested and experienced. A majority of the Tallensi live in the basin of the Volota River in northern Ghana. But they have no fixed territorial boundaries, nor are they precisely marked off from neighboring groups by cultural or linguistic usages.  Tallensi culture is especially similar with that of neighboring Namnam and Nankanse. To this effect, an anthropologist who surveyed the area in the 1930s doubted whether it was necessary to deal with the Tallensi as an ethnic group distinct from these two neighboring groups (Rattray, 1932: 339).    

In 1931, the Tallensi numbered 35,000 (Fortes, 1945:4).  In 2003, the total number of all Gur-speaking peoples was estimated to be 820, 000. The Tallensi constitute a significant section of this population, but their current size is not accurately known as these linguistic data are not disaggregated by dialects.

The Tallensi speak Talni, a dialect of Farefare, part of the Gur branch of the Niger-Congo family.  

The Tallensi think of themselves as divided into two major groups; the Hill Tallenis (real Tallensi) whose ancestors “sprang from the earth,” and Namoos (affiliated Tallensi) who migrated from an area called Mampurugu (Fortes, 1945: 22).  Both groups lived with no central government, until they were finally conquered by the British in 1911 (Fortes, 1945: 24).

The British ruled Tallensi by elevating a former clan chief of Dagomba origin into a paramount chief.  The Paramount Chief in turn appointed many chiefs as his representatives in different parts of Tallensi society (Fortes, 1945:6).  

British rule had reportedly little impact on Tallensi culture. By 1936, for example, Fortes (1945:12) reported that there was only one Tallensi child who continued in school to graduate with “a moderate command of English and the three R’s” [reading, writing and arithmetic].  Likewise, missionary activities were reportedly limited only to an occasional visit to one Tallensi settlement.

In the old established settlements, Fortes observed a very close correlation between lineage proximity and residential proximity among members of the clan who live there. Close agnates tend to live near one another so the residential proximity is almost a measure of lineage proximity. A segment of small area tends to be a close residential cluster and segments of larger area, up to major segments of a maximal lineage, tend to form residential blocks (Fortes, 1945: 207).  This correlation between kinship and proximity in physical settlement is is supported by evidence from recent ethnoarcheological research (Gabrilopoulos, et.al, 2002: 231).

The Tallensi are settled farmers. Their traditional subsistence centers on cultivating millet and sorghum as their staples.  They also raise sheep, goats, cattle, horses and donkeys on a small scale.  Other domestic animals include chickens and guinea fowl which are especially needed for rituals and sacrifices. Most people obtain additional income from a combination of gathering, hunting and fishing.

Most families are able to produce common articles such as hen-coops, baskets, bows, adze-shaft, etc.  Some more skilled men and women produce a few items for sale, especially during the dry season.  

Some Tallensi are skilled blacksmiths, leather workers, and potters. But Fortes found their number to be "exceedingly few"(Fortes, 1945:10).   Craftsmen produce their crafts only in their spare time, mostly during the dry season when there is no farm work.

Many Tallensi men and women earn additional income from petty trade in food crops and imported consumer goods.  Some grow cocoa, introduced by the colonial government, as a cash crop.  

As with most traditional societies, division of labor among the Tallensi is determined mostly by gender. Men take care of animals and do most of the agricultural work, while women help at planting and harvesting. Women grow vegetable gardens and condiments. Women also gather and engage in petty trade. Hunting is exclusively done by men.

Land is owned by patrilineal lineages. Heads of domestic groups maintain heritable usufruct rights to specific homestead plots and bush fields originally allotted by lineage heads.  These rights are not subject to sale or rent, but can be transferred to other lineage members or assimilated newcomers as gifts.  Land transfers have to be approved by the office of a lineage ritual leader called tengdana (earth priest) who is believed to have deep spiritual ties with the land.

Fortes described the Tallensi as strongly patrilineal in their descent system and “patrilocal in their residence pattern.  Patrilineal kin groups are organized into an elaborate clan system. Each clan, or “maximal lineage” in the words of Fortes, consists of descendants of a common ancestor 8-10 generations back. The clan is further divided into minor minimal lineages which functions as the land holding units. Each minor lineage is in turn divided into minimal lineages consisting of the children of one man. Each of these sociological levels is a corporate unit known by the name of the common ancestor.  Political and religious functions are invested in the maximal lineage, while a person’s settlement pattern and property relations are associated with membership in minor and minimal lineages.

The Tallensi used a combination of descriptive and classificatory kinship terms. Avuncular and nepotic terms are of bifurcate merging type, while cousin terms are descriptive. Terms for wife are extended to the wives of siblings.

When studied by Fortes in 1934-1937, about 40% per cent of all of the married men in Tallensi were reportedly polygynous. In polygamous families, each wife lives in her own hut in the homestead. The senior wife is regarded as the chief wife. Sororal polygyny is disapproved and the sororate is not customary. Levirate marriages are allowed between people of certain categories.

According to Murdock, the Tallensi recognize three modes of marriage: 1) elopement with connivance of the girl’s mother or sister, gifts to her parents, and subsequent marriage payment; 2) arrangement between the heads of two joint families through an intermediary (pogosama), who is patrilineally related to the groom and also related to the bride, usually as a son of one her female lineage mates; 3) infant betrothal, in which a rich man gives an advance on the marriage payments to a poor man for his infant daughter. Of these three, elopement is the commonest mode when marrying a first wife.

Traditional Tallensi marriage involves payments which fall into three categories: 1) gifts at marriage, including fowl for sacrifices, 2) a “placation gift” at some time after marriage, consisting of fowls distributed among the elders of the bride’s lineage, and 3) a bride-price, paid at a later data and often in installments, consisting of about four cattle or the equivalent in sheep or money. The bride-price is raised by the head of the groom’s minor lineage and is paid to the head of the bride’s minor lineage. Payments obtained for a girl should be used to secure a wife for her brother. There is also an obligation to do several days a year of agricultural bride service for a number of years after the wedding.

The commonest domestic group is the polygynous extended family consisting of a man and his sons (and sometimes grandsons) with their wives and unmarried daughters. Married daughters live with their husbands in other communities, commonly nearby. As a culturally designated heir of his father, the eldest son must use a separate gate to the compound.

Inheritance is patrilineal. Lineage property (farm land and ancestral shrines) pass from lineage head to his successor by seniority. Individually acquired property (for example, grain, personal belongings, goats and fowl, personal shrines and land acquired by a man's own effort) is inherited by sons. A woman's property is divided among her daughters, but her cattle are inherited by her sons.

According to Fortes, children in Taleland are remarkably free from over-solicitous supervision. Each child reportedly had the maximum freedom and responsibility commensurate with his/her skills and maturity. Parents allowed children to go where they liked and do what they liked, while holding them fully responsible for tasks entrusted to them. As a consequence, children performed a wide variety of useful activities beginning from about age six (Fortes, 1938: 31).

Beyond the domestic group, Tallensi society is organized on the basis of elaborate clan/lineage system (see, under KIN GROUPS AND DESCENT above).

The traditional Tallensi political system lacked centralized power. Each community had a ritual head who was also the head of the resident lineage or sub-lineage.  The Tallensi recognized two types of ritual headmen, namely tangdana  or “custodians of the earth,” and na’am or chiefs. The first are descendants of the original Talli who inherited the position through seniority. Believed to have deep spiritual ties with the land, the tangdana are responsible for ensuring the prosperity of people mostly by observing taboos and presiding over sacrifices and rituals.   By contrast, the na’am or chiefs are elected by the community for their good standing. Some chiefs enjoyed great prestige in communities beyond their own, but their functions were limited to their own kin group (Fortes, 1945, 12).    

Prior to the arrival of the British, the Tallensi had no judicial system. Rule of law governing rights and obligations in property relations, person-to-person relations, and inter-group relations were enforced collectively by members of lineages and/or sub-lineages (Fortes, 1945: 235).  

Hostility and punitive raids between communities were common, but large-scale warfare was rare. The spilling of blood is believed to desecrate the sacred earth (Fortes, 1945: 235).

Each Tallensi clan (or maximal lineage) is associated with a particular totem to which members must show avoidance. As descendants of the same founding ancestors, lineage members are unified by common rituals relating with the worship of ancestors and the earth (Fortes, 1945: 4).

In addition to the tangdana  or “custodians of the earth” described above, the Tallensi recognize a class of individuals believed to be diviners. Fortes found diviners to be numerous in each settlement but only one or two of them were popular enough to earn more than a few pence a day by divining (Fortes, 1945: 10).  

The most important organized rituals include the harvest festival (bugram) which takes place in October, and the gologo which comes at the end of the dry season. Both festivals revolve around honoring important ancestral and earth spirits (Fortes, 1949:358).

Tallensi arts include a wide variety of folklore, music, dance and musical instruments. It also includes beautiful clay figures that children build while playing among themselves (Fortes, 1938: 30).  

Illness within among members of a man’s extended family is often attributed to his failure for “ensuring the beneficence of ancestor spirits and other mystical powers” (Fortes, 1949: 106). .

The dead are buried in small cemeteries. Each settlement or main segment of a lineage has its own burial site, often marked by sacred groves. Each burial site serves as a spiritual center where members of the local community interact with ancestral spirits.  The most venerated of these scared shrines is located in the Tong Hills where the founding ancestors of the original Tali were buried (Fortes, 1945: 220).  

Fortes, Meyer, 1949. The Web of Kinship Among the Tallensi: The Second part of An Analysis of of the Social Structure of a Trans-Volta Tribe. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Studies.

Fortes, Meyer, 1945. The Dynamics of Clanship Among the Tallensi: Being the First Part of an Analysis of the Social Structure of a Trans-Volta Tribe. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Studies.

Fortes, Meyer, 1938. Social and Psychological Aspects of Education in Taleland. Africa, Supplement to Vol. 11, No. 4. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Studies.

Fortes, Meyer, 1936. “Ritual Festivals and Social Cohesion in the Hinterland of the Gold Coast”. American Anthropologist, Vol. 38. Pp. 590-604.

Gabrilopoulos, Nick, Charles Mather and Ceasar R. Apentiik, 2002. “Lineage Organization of the Tallensi Compound: The Social Logic of Domestic Space in Northern Ghana”. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 72, No. 2, Pp. 221-244.

Murdock, Goorge Peter, n.d. Africa Culture Summaries. Unpublished Notes at HRAF. New Haven.

Rattray, Roberts Sutherland, 1932. The Tribes of the Ashanti Hinterland. Vol.2, Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

This culture summary was written by Teferi Abate Adem in February 2010, mostly based on information in eHRAF Tallensi Collection (FE11).  The synopsis and indexing notes were written by Teferi Abate Adem in February 2010.