Lawra Chief’s Palace - Seat of traditional authority, tourism destination
The royal palace of each community in Ghana holds symbolic significance regarding the culture and heritage of the people from that traditional area.
Aside from functioning as the seat of traditional authority, this infrastructure also acts as a ‘museum’ or a repository of the history of the local people, and the Lawra Chief’s palace in the Upper West Region is no exception.
The Lawra Naa's Palace is one of the tourism destinations in Lawra, where every design and building holds a symbolic meaning in the history of the people of Lawra.
Visibly engraved on the pillars at the entrance of the palace are arrows and bows to depict the main occupation of the people of Lawra, which is hunting.
In addition to farming, hunting for bush meat is one of the traditional skills of most men from Lawra, and this skill is usually displayed during the annual Kobine dance festival.
The people of Lawra have a reputation for hunting elephants.
Salifu Karbo, a brother to the current Lawra Naa, Puowelle Karbo III, told this reporter that elephant hunting used to be a prestigious activity in the past, “as bringing down such a large animal showed bravery.”
He said parts of the animal were kept as royal regalia, while the tusks were carved for ornaments and some of the bones were used in rituals.
However, nowadays, people no longer hunt elephants due to depletion and conservation laws.
People hunt small animals such as rabbits, the Greater cane rat (grasscutter), warthogs and monitor lizards these days.
Totem
Sitting in the middle of the bows and arrows is the king of the jungle: the lion, which is the totem of the people of Lawra.
It is considered a taboo to kill a lion in the Lawra Traditional Area, as the animal is considered the protector of the people of Lawra, and oral tradition has it that the ancestors could appear in the form of lions to guard the community against danger.
As such, it is considered a serious taboo to kill or consume a lion in Lawra, as the act could bring misfortune to the community.
Defence wall
Leading to the palace's entrance is what could be described as ‘small foundations’ of rooms with undulating tops.
These are not just any ‘foundations’, but defence walls that the royal army used to protect themselves from the advancing enemy.
The warriors, who used bows and arrows as weapons, hid behind these walls and shot at advancing enemies who could not tell whether people were behind those dwarf walls.
It is said that during the slave trade era, these walls served as hiding places for warriors.
The edges of these walls were built in a human head shape to confuse their enemies and prevent their warriors from being attacked.
Graves
Like most family houses in the region, the palace contains the graves of past chiefs buried in front of it.
At the main entrance is the royal graveyard where Mr Karbo said the remains of the first chief of Lawra, who happened to be their father, and the second chief, his brother, have been laid.
He said the graveyard is specifically for burying chiefs or any potential chiefs.
