Qualla: Wa Naa's Palace

Wa Naa's Palace: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dnshitobu, CC BY-SA 4.0. The chief sits on a lion skin. His elders sit on cowhide and sheepskin, the material beneath them signaling rank as clearly as any crown or scepter. This protocol has not changed at Wa Naa's Palace since the Wala people established their kingdom in what is now Ghana's Upper West Region. What has changed is the building itself -- once a cluster of round thatched cottages, rebuilt in 1919 into the flat-roofed, buttressed form that stands today. The palace occupies the heart of Wa, the regional capital, and serves simultaneously as royal residence, seat of government, and cemetery. Former kings are buried in the forecourt, directly in front of the entrance, so that everyone who approaches the living ruler walks past the dead ones.

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Image: Dnshitobu | CC BY-SA 4.0

Wa Naa's Palace: From Round Huts to Sudanese Walls

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit KUUBO EMMANUEL, CC BY-SA 4.0. The original palace was built in 1889 in the traditional Mole-Dagban style -- round thatched cottages grouped within a compound. In 1919, Wa Naa Yamusa Pelpuo III commissioned a reconstruction in the western Sudanese architectural style, transforming the residence into the mud-br...

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Image: KUUBO EMMANUEL | CC BY-SA 4.0

Wa Naa's Palace: A People Who Traveled Far

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Shahadusadik, CC BY-SA 4.0. Historians trace the origins of the Wala people to migrations from Sudan in the northern part of Africa. They were nomadic herders who traveled enormous distances to feed their livestock before settling in the area around present-day Wa. Once settled, they installed a king -- the...

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Image: Shahadusadik | CC BY-SA 4.0

Wa Naa's Palace: The Y-Shaped Columns

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Achiri Bitamsimli, CC BY-SA 4.0. The most structurally distinctive feature of the palace is its Y-shaped wooden columns. These forked timbers support the flat mud roofs and give the interior its character -- a forest of branching supports holding up low ceilings of packed earth. By 2009, the columns and the buil...

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Image: Achiri Bitamsimli | CC BY-SA 4.0

Wa Naa's Palace: The Heart of Wa

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DeanClericuzio, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wa is the capital of Ghana's Upper West Region, a city of roughly 100,000 people in the dry savannah near the Burkina Faso border. The palace sits at the city's center, and from the air it is distinguishable by its flat roofline, buttressed facade, and the open forecourt that ser...

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Image: DeanClericuzio | CC BY-SA 4.0