Gonja (kingdom)
{{Short description|Former country in present-day Ghana}}
{{Infobox Former Country
| native_name =
| conventional_long_name = Gonja Kingdom
| common_name = Gonja
| status = Kingdom
| government_type = Monarchy
| year_start = 1675
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| p1 = Mali Empire
| flag_p1 =
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| s1 = Northern Territories of the Gold Coast
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| capital = Yagbum
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| common_languages = Gonja
| religion = Islam
| currency =
| leader1 = Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa
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| title_leader = Yagbongwura
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Gonja was a kingdom in present-day northern Ghana founded in 1675 by Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa.{{Cite book |title=Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues |last=Danver |first=Steven L. |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |isbn=9781317464006 |publication-date=10 Mar 2015 |page=34}}
With the fall of the Songhai Empire (c. 1600), the Mande Ngbanya clan moved south, crossing the Black Volta and founding their capital city at Yagbum under the leadership of Naba'a.{{cite book|last=Wilks |first=Ivor|chapter=Wangara, Akan, and Portuguese in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries|editor1-last=Bakewell|editor1-first=Peter|title=Mines of Silver and Gold in the Americas|date=1997|publisher=Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Limited|location=Aldershot|pages=29–30}}
The Ngbanya expanded rapidly, conquering several neighbors in the White Volta valley and beginning a profitable gold trade with the Akan states through nearby Begho. By 1675, the Gonja established a paramount chief, called the Yagbongwura, to control the kingdom. The Ngbanya dynasty has controlled this position from its founding to the present day, with only two brief interregnums. The current Yagbongwura, Bikunuto Jewu Soale I, has held his position since 2023.{{cn|date=February 2025}} The Gonja kingdom was originally divided into sections overseen by male siblings of Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa including their children and grandchildren.