Allabar is one of the best known suburbs of Kumasi, right in the heart of the Ashanti regional capital. It can be described as cosmopolitan, being home to several ethnic groups like the Hausa, Yoruba, Mossi, Kotokoli, Gonja, Dagomba, Busanga, Mamprusi, Gurunshie and Frafra.
Allabar is also highly commercialised and it is only next to Adum in terms of commercial activities; it can be described as the centre of the bicycle and motorcycle business in Ashanti.
It, therefore, attracts people from the northern part of the country and even Burkina Faso, who troop to Allabar to buy these items in truckloads.
Allabar is also the centre of the black market trade, even though there are also many bureaux de change around.
Origins
The origins of Allabar can be traced to the closing decades of the 19th century when the Yoruba and Hausa who had earlier been trooping to Ashanti, especially Kumasi, as traders and Moslem clerics, decided to settle down in the ancient town and make it their home.
They were welcomed by the Asantehene who got them to pray for the Asantes before their wars.
The Hausa were the first to settle down at a place near today’s military museum and close to the General Post Office.
They later moved to the Mbrom area before finally settling down at Roman Hill with its thick forest that was known to harbour hyenas then. The place was, therefore, called Ramin Kura, meaning the abode of hyenas.
The Yorubas, on the other hand, were given parcels of land to build houses along French Line, which was a settlement for former French colonial citizens who brought sheep and goats to sell at an open place. They also traded in French Francs.
Most of the Yorubas who were from Ilorin were said to have prepared charms for the Asante warriors, especially during the Sagrenti War of 1874 and Yaa Asantewaa War of 1900.
After 1901, the Yorubas started building along French Line but by 1906, they were asked to stop following the survey and construction of the railway line from Kumasi to Accra and from Kumasi to Takoradi.
The construction of the railway line also brought in more Yorubas who came to work on the railway project. They included Baba Jariogbe, Habibu Ayinde and Sanni-Thomas.
Another popular Yoruba was Baba Kuranga who was a soldier and fought on the side of the Asante.
New settlements
Following the construction of the railway line, the Yorubas were given new places to settle. It was further north and that must be regarded as the beginning of what is today Allabar.
With the Hausa not very comfortable on Roman Hill, they also found it more convenient to join the Yorubas by crossing the railway line into the new area.
After the Yorubas and Hausa had settled at Allabar from the 1910s, other Moslem ethnic groups like the Mossi, Fulani, Gurunshie, Kotokoli and Mamprusi, also followed suit.
This period also coincided with the building of Manhyia Palace from 1922 following the movement of the Asantehene from Kontompo near where the airport is now located.
With the arrival of the Moslem ethnic groups, the Zongo Community began to take shape. Even though the Yorubas were the first to arrive, they did not take permanent residence till towards the end of the 19th century. The Hausas, however, came to Kumasi to settle without thinking of going back to Nigeria.
As a result the Hausa started appointing their head or chief from 1890 with Madugu being installed as the first Sarikin Zongo before the British Administration was established after the Sargrenti War. He was followed by Mallam Tuni (1896) and Mamman Megida (1896-1900).
It was not until 1902 that the Yorubas nominated Suleiman from Ilorin as their head or Oba but for inexplicable reasons he had to wait till 1908 before he was turbaned by Mallam Ussman, the Sarikin Zongo, who was the leader of the Zongo Community.
All the other tribal groups also appointed their heads and received the blessings of the Sarikin Zongo, who was recognised by all as the overlord of Zongo.
In the same vein, the head of the Yoruba Community was also elected as the number two in Zongo and anytime the Sarikin Zongo was not around or was indisposed, it was the Yoruba chief who acted as the Sarikin Zongo.
After the First World War, there was an influx of people into Zongo from everywhere, especially from the northern part of the country.
The Zongo area that came to be known later as Allabar stretched from today’s Aboabo Station to the Ahenboboano road where Apagyafie is located. It then stretched northwards to Manhyia and eastwards to where the central mosque was built in the 1950s.
Kumasi Zongo is a vast area and was a quiet township in the 1930s and 1940s. It started making progress during the reign of Mallam Salau as Sarikin Zongo (1919-1932) and Mallam Ali (1932-1945). The period also coincided with the reign of Oba Suleiman (1908-1940) and Oba Aliyu Alao I (1940-1971).
Beginings of modern Allabr
The construction of the main Allabar Road began in 1940 and so did the arterial roads to the northern part of the area. The tarring of these roads in the early 1950s marked the beginning of the modern era of Allabar or the Zongo Community.
Throughout this period, Zongo or Allabar was a quiet and peaceful place. But this peaceful suburb was to explode during the struggle for independence.
Both the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the National Liberation Movement (NLM) recruited most of their thugs from this area. Allabar became a battleground in the years leading to independence. Being a predominantly Moslem area, the leaders of Zongo decided to form the Moslem Association Party (MAP) to align with the opposition.
It was as a result of the stance of the Zongo Community that the popular Sarikin Zongo, Amadu Baba, and the Yoruba Islamic cleric, Mallam Lardan, were deported when Ghana became independent in 1957.
Meanwhile Zongo, which is now more popularly called Allabar, continued to grow. It became a centre for all sorts of businesses. It began to attract a lot of people from Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Trading started booming and Allabar began to grow in prosperity.
