zongo settlements
{{short description|Areas in West African towns}}
{{Use Ghanaian English|date=January 2023}}
Zongo settlements are areas in West African towns populated mostly by migrants from the northern savannah regions and the West African Sahel,{{Cite book |last=Schildkrout |first=Enid |url=http://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=4640348 |title=People of the Zongo. |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-511-55762-0 |location=Cambridge, GBR |language=English |oclc=958554015}} especially from Niger and northern Nigeria.{{cite book|author=Cecilia Sem Obeng|title=Home was Uncomfortable; School was Hell:In general terms, the word is used to describe an area or settlement inhabited by different tribes who got themselves resident there as a result of trading activities.The settlement may be an entire town or a part of an urban settlement. For instance, Ghana has several Zongos located within several parts of her regions. A Confessionalist-ethnographic Account of Belief Systems and Socio-educational Crisis in the Schooling of Ghanaian Rural Girls|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iixPQR7LczwC|date=1 January 2002|publisher=Nova Publishers|isbn=978-1-59033-469-0}}
Common features of the zongo communities are their use of Hausa language as lingua franca and their shared religion: Islam.{{Cite book |last=Pontzen |first=Benedikt |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/islam-in-a-zongo/F26C9A3689B0DF280C25E4FB8125321B |title=Islam in a Zongo: Muslim Lifeworlds in Asante, Ghana |date=2021 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-83024-9 |series=The International African Library |location=Cambridge}} The designation of these wards of migrants as zongos derives from the Hausa word zango which literally means "a camping place for trading caravans".{{Cite book |last=Arhin |first=Kwame |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/728719688 |title=West African Traders in Ghana in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century |publisher=Longman |year=1979 |isbn= |location=London |pages=6 |oclc=728719688 |language=en}} As the name reveals, zongos were originally founded as places of trade in the long-distance trading networks that connected the West African subregion.{{Cite book |last=Lovejoy |first=Paul E |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/477437003 |title=Caravans of kola: the Hausa kola trade, 1700-1900 |date=1980 |publisher=Ahmadu Bello Univ. Press |isbn=978-978-154-568-9 |location=Zaria |language=English |oclc=477437003}}
Ghana
Collectively referred to as zongos, zongo communities are found in all 16 regions of Ghana with much denser populations in Greater Accra and the Ashanti Region.{{Cite book |last=Pellow |first=Deborah |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/487621617 |title=Landlords and lodgers: socio-spatial organization in an Accra community |date=2008 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-65397-6 |location=Chicago |language=English |oclc=487621617}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tpnaeupe4gkC&q=zongos+in+ghana&pg=PA102|title=The Muslim Resurgence in Ghana Since 1950: Its Effects Upon Muslims and Muslim-Christian Relations|last=Samwini|first=Nathan|date=2006-01-01|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=9783825889913|language=en}}
The earliest bustling zongo communities in Ghana started in Salaga, and by the first quarter of the 19th century similar communities were already established in Tamale, Yeji and Ejisu.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qPssAQAAIAAJ&q=salaga+zongo|title=Ashanti and the Northeast|date=1970|publisher=Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=juUkAQAAIAAJ&q=zongo+in+yeji|title=Between Accommodation and Revivalism: Muslims, the State, and Society in Ghana from the Precolonial to the Postcolonial Era|last=Weiss|first=Holger|date=2008-01-01|publisher=Finnish Oriental Society|isbn=9789519380711|language=en}} The largest and one of the oldest zongos close to the coastal belt started in 1810 at Ushertown (Zangon Mallam or present-day Zongo-Lane) before they were resettled at Sabon Zango followed by Nima (1836).{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JOfCi4IVWIcC&q=most+populated+zongo+in+ghana+nima&pg=PA61|title=Ghana|last=Naylor|first=Rachel|date=2000-01-01|publisher=Oxfam|isbn=9780855984311|pages=61|language=en}}
In the present day, zongo communities in Ghana are a microcosm of people from the lower and middle classes from both northern and southern Ghana as well as immigrants from neighboring countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}
The Hausa from northern Nigeria and Southern Niger were the pioneer settlers of the zongos. The early settlers constructed makeshift houses with the intention to work hard, raise some capital and return to their locality. As it has usually been with immigration, many adopted their new found place as their permanent home.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Zongo-the-eleventh-region-281461|title = Zongo:the eleventh region?|date = 4 August 2013}}
=See also=
Benin
Zongo Communities are common in Benin with large settlements found in Parakou, Ganou and the port city of Cotonou.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h119DQAAQBAJ&q=zongo+in+southern+benin&pg=PA9|title=The African World in Dialogue: An Appeal to Action!|last=Washington|first=Teresa N.|date=2016-11-29|publisher=Oya's Tornado|isbn=9780991073085|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ofDatylMrNwC&q=zongo+xommunty+in+benin&pg=PA11|title=Maternity, Medicine, and Power: Reproductive Decisions in Urban Benin|last=Sargent|first=Carolyn Fishel|date=1989-01-01|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520064843|language=en}}