ABSTRACT
Gonja lay to the north of the wide bend made by the Black Volta, as the river swings eastward from one side of the present state of Ghana to the other. Certainly one cannot understand nineteenth-century Gonja without knowing something of its external as well as its internal relations. So the author begins by describing its position with regard to neighbouring peoples, the economic system, which stretched far beyond its boundaries, and the historical framework of outside contacts. The western boundary of Gonja was formed by the Black Volta. The distribution of state and stateless societies was of fundamental importance to Gonja. The inhabitants of Gonja gained considerable benefit from the traders who came from near and far. The tale one most frequently hears about the creation of the Gonja state begins with the migration of a band of warriors from 'Mande' some time in the sixteenth or seventeenth century.
