MyGhana2027.com · Languages of Ghana · Kasem & Grusi
At the very top of Ghana, along the border with Burkina Faso, live peoples who never built great kingdoms and never wanted them. The Kassena of Paga and Navrongo and the Sisaala of Tumu organised their lives around families, earth shrines and elders. In the 19th century that made them targets for slave raiders, and the scars are still visible on the land.
The Grusi (or Gurunsi) languages are a group within the Gur branch of Niger-Congo, related to Mole-Dagbani but distinct from it. They are spoken in northern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso. "Grusi" itself was a name used by outsiders; the peoples call themselves by their own names.
Kasem is the language of the Kassena, who live around Paga, Navrongo and Chiana in the Upper East Region, and across the border around Pô and Tiébélé in Burkina Faso. It is one of the eleven Ghanaian languages sponsored by the state in schools.
The border town famous for its sacred crocodile ponds, where crocodiles are believed to carry the souls of the people and are never harmed. Paga Crocodile Pond.
Home of the great mud-built Catholic cathedral of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, decorated with local wall paintings. Navrongo Cathedral.
Spoken around Tumu and across the Upper West Region towards the Burkina border. The Sisaala are among the main Grusi peoples of Ghana.
Smaller Grusi languages are spoken in pockets across the north-west and the Savannah Region, some by only a few thousand people, and several are under pressure from Dagaare, Gonja and Twi.
In the late 19th century, Zabarma warlords from the north, above all Babatu, raided the Grusi lands for slaves. Peoples without central armies or fortified capitals were especially vulnerable. Villages were burned, and thousands of people were captured and sold south through the markets.
Near Paga, the Pikworo slave camp preserves the rock where captives were held, the holes in the stone where they ate, and the place where they were punished. Pikworo Slave Camp.
The raider whose name still frightens in the north, until the colonial powers ended his campaigns. Babatu.
Defensive architecture: the compact, fortress-like compounds of the far north, with small doors and flat roofs, were built to protect families and livestock in an age of raids.
Kassena women decorate their compound walls with geometric patterns in red, black and white, most famously at Tiébélé across the border. On the Ghana side, the painted houses of Sirigu belong to the neighbouring Gurene-speaking area.
Authority over land rests with the earth priests and family elders, not with kings. Shrines, sacred groves and ponds mark the landscape.
The harvest festival of Navrongo and the Kassena-Nankana area, giving thanks for the crops before they are eaten. Fao, the festival of ritual renewal.
Around 3% of Ghanaians are Grusi by ethnicity, according to the 2021 census. Kasem has a strong written tradition with school books and scripture, while several smaller Grusi languages have very little written material at all.
Updated and fact-checked: 13 October 2026. Census figures are rounded. The classification of some smaller Grusi languages varies between linguists.