Ruins of Loropeni

This property, with its imposing stone walls is the best preserved of ten fortresses in the Lobi area and is part of a larger group of 100 stone enclosures that bear testimony to the power of the trans-Saharan gold trade. The ruins have been shown to be at least 1,000 years old. The settlement was occupied by the Lohron or Koulango peoples, who controlled the extraction and transformation of gold in the region when it reached its peak from the 14th to the 17th century. The settlement seems to have been abandoned during some periods during its long history. The property was finally deserted in the early 19th century. Reassessment of the history of Loropéni has pushed much further back the date of its construction to at least the 11th century AD and disassociated it from the Gan people, mentioned in the previous evaluation report.

It is necessary to locate the construction of the Loropéni ruins in the geopolitical context of the sub-Saharan kingdoms. They appeared after the fall of the empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, when there were migrations of gold miners and goldsmiths into the Lobi area, and before the development to the south of the Akan kingdoms, which caused migrations to the north as people fled slave hunters.

The region was connected by caravans to the large commercial cities to the north on the river Niger and from there across the Sahara to north Africa. It was probably later that the gold was traded south to the Atlantic coast.

The ruins have long been associated with the gold trade but the evidence for this is circumstantial. It is suggested that such large and fortified structures need to be associated with defending a high value product and the need to house labour. The southern enclose could have been used for slaves or miners at the gold mines.

Most oral traditions collected since the "discovery" of the ruins in 1902 indicate the Koulango people as builders of fortresses. However, recent research shows that the Koulango were preceded by Lorhon and Nabé peoples who migrated south into the area and were known to be in the area of Kong, from the 10th century.

The Gan, who have been attributed as the builders of the ruins, simply re-used them from the end of the 17th century to escape oppression from the Ashanti in Ghana. At around the same time the focus of gold production moved south to the Ashanti area and the gold trade declined around the Lobi area. With its decline the fortified buildings were abandoned and re-colonised by the Gan.

This is contrary to the work that maintained that the Loropéni settlement would have been built by Tokpã Farma, ninth king of the dynasty of Gan, with the aim of transferring the capital to it from Obiré. This project did not get the approval of the ancestors and he died three years later. This explains the name ‘Kpôkayâga', the house of the refusal, by which the site is known.

Studies and excavations have revealed evidence for use over a long duration and with possible discontinuities, or even periods of abandonment. Certain zones present several coats of plaster, and the mortar in the external walls shows clearly several repairs. The higher levels from the excavation show a poverty of finds suggesting that the places could have been looted. The trees growing out of the ruins confirm this timescale.