Northern

What to do

Things to do in Northern

1. 

   1.Walk with elephants at Mole National Park

   Ghana's first and largest protected area spreads across roughly 4,577 square kilometres of Guinea savannah, and its foot safaris are the reason many travellers come north at all. Walking — rather than driving — puts you at eye level with a landscape of grassland, woodland and seasonal waterholes, with elephants, buffalo, kob, roan antelope and waterbuck among the animals regularly seen. The park also holds more than 90 mammal species and 334 bird species, so bring binoculars even if the big animals stay shy.

   Tip: The park entrance sits three kilometres from Larabanga, off the Damongo–Sawla road; arrange your safari with the park's guides on arrival and start early, when the light is best and the animals are active.

2. 2.See the Larabanga Mosque

   Thought to be the oldest mosque in Ghana and one of the oldest in West Africa, Larabanga is a small mud-and-stick building in the Sudanic-Sahelian style, roughly eight metres square, with timber pillars, two pyramidal towers and buttresses crowned by pinnacles. It has four entrances — for the village chief, men, women and the muezzin — and a baobab beside the door is said to shelter the remains of the trader who built it. It is a working place of worship, not a monument.

   Tip: Non-Muslims may not enter the mosque, so plan to admire it from outside and dress and behave accordingly; it sits near Damongo on the road to Mole, making it an easy stop en route.

3. 

   3.Spend an afternoon at Red Clay Studio

   Founded by the Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama and inaugurated in 2020, Red Clay Studio is an open art campus of red-brick halls outside Tamale, named for the burnt-umber earth of the north. Its galleries hold exhibitions, installations and archives — including repurposed colonial-era trains and Soviet-era aircraft — alongside workshops, film screenings and community projects. Even visitors who think they do not like galleries tend to leave this one talking about it.

   Tip: It lies outside the city, so arrange transport rather than expecting to walk; allow a couple of hours and ask your guide about the works on show, since the displays change.

4. 

   4.Browse Tamale Central Market

   Tamale's main market is the commercial heart of the north, a dense, loud grid of stalls where the Aboabo and Dakurili sections sell food, crafts and clothing. It is the place to understand how the city feeds itself and trades with the towns around it, and to pick up practical things — cloth, baskets, sandals — rather than souvenirs made for visitors. Go with time to spare and no fixed route.

   Tip: Go in the morning when the market is at its liveliest and the heat is manageable, keep valuables close, and ask before photographing traders.

5. Attraction

   5.Watch potters at work at Kukuo

   Kukuo is a traditional pottery-making community near Tamale, listed by Visit Ghana among the region's key attractions. Potters here shape clay by hand into cooking pots, water vessels and bowls using techniques passed down through generations, and the process — digging, wedging, coiling, smoothing and firing — is as interesting as the finished work. It is a working village rather than a staged demonstration, which is exactly its appeal.

   Tip: Ask permission before taking photographs and consider buying directly from the makers; a local guide can explain the stages of production and translate.

6. Attraction

   6.Visit the Centre for National Culture, Tamale

   The Northern Regional office of Ghana's National Commission on Culture sits in Tamale's Central Business District and gathers several things in one place: a crafts village, sewing centres, bars and a restaurant. It is a convenient first stop for anyone wanting an overview of northern craft — smocks, leatherwork, baskets and textiles — and for meeting makers without travelling far from the city centre. The centre also hosts cultural programming through the year.

   Tip: Come early in the day and treat it as an orientation stop before heading to markets or villages; prices are negotiable but bargaining should stay good-humoured.

7. 

   7.Pay respects at the Dakpema Chief's Palace

   The palace of the Dakpema, chief of Tamale, is a focal point of Dagbon traditional life in the city and a gathering place during festivals. It is a seat of governance rather than a visitor attraction, and that is precisely why it matters: seeing where a chief holds court, receives elders and settles matters gives context to everything else you will encounter in Dagbon. Approach it as you would a working parliament.

   Tip: Dress modestly, remove hats and shoes where indicated, and never enter or photograph without permission; a guide who knows the protocols will make the visit smoother and more respectful.

8. 8.Follow the slave route at Salaga

   In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Salaga was the largest slave market of its era and a great trading town at the edge of the Sahel, so cosmopolitan it was called the Timbuktu of the south. Captives were sold here and marched to the coast for export across the Atlantic. What survives is restrained and affecting: a young baobab on the site of the old market and a pond known in Hausa as Wonkan bawa, the bathing spot of slaves.

   Tip: Come with a guide who can explain the town's place in both the trans-Saharan and Atlantic trades, allow quiet time, and remember that people still live here — this is remembrance, not spectacle.

9. 

   9.Time your trip to Damba or the Fire Festival

   Damba is the most widely celebrated festival in northern Ghana, a pageant of drumming, horsemanship and dance that glorifies chiefs and royalty, with the Yaa Naa sitting in state at Yendi. Bugum Chugu, the Fire Festival, opens the Dagomba lunar year on the ninth day of the month of fire, when celebrants dressed as warriors carry burning torches through the streets to remember a king's lost son. Both are living ceremonies, not performances for visitors.

   Tip: Festival dates follow the lunar calendar, so check locally before booking; watch from the edges of the crowd, keep clear of the torches, and ask before filming.

In pictures

Northern in pictures