Short history of Karimenga
The village Karimenga which originally was Timeema meaning “let’s build” was started by a hunter known as Satanbla. He was also a farmer in the year 1790.
In one of his expeditions, he discovered the land on which the village is now situated. As a farmer, he saw that the land was fertile for farming and therefore went back home to Wulugu, his native land. He came back with his family and settled on the newly discovered land. Months later some other farmers from Wulugu joined him but as custom demands if someone settled at a place first, he or she is made the head of the community. So the people came and asked him how much they should pay so that they can build. His answer was “Timeema” which meant “let’s build”. Our colonial masters, because of the difficulty they had in pronouncing the name, gradually changed the name. Therefore, the name Karimenga evolved. The people speak Mamprule and their tribe is Mamprushe.
From Naa Satenbla came seven other chiefs. The current chief is called Naa Kulayim – Nya Luman, his skins name is Dantolsugu Byaayura. The community now has 89 houses with a population of about 456 people. It also has a primary school (stage 1- 6), a three class room block which houses all the six classes. There is Presbyterian Church building, which is used as a nursery for the little ones.
The Village Herbal Pro – Poor tourist project
Karimenga as it is called is a very small community situated in the middle of the forest, thereby making it easy to access herbal medicine, which the people still use for health care. It also creates an opportunity for tourist to see the type of trees, grasses and beliefs used in health care.
The people are mostly farmer and because of the forest they burn wood into charcoal as a source of making money. The White Volta cuts across the village western side of this community also giving it the opportunity for dry season farming of tomatoes, watermelon and onions. It will also make it possible for tourist to interact with the farmers during their visit. The village is in the Northern region of Ghana (West Africa). It is located on the main truck road, linking the Northern region to the Upper East region. It’s about 25km prior to the Upper East regional capital, Bolgatanga, and about 135km away from the Northern regional capital, Tamale.
Tourism potentials of Karimenga
This village has been neglected for a very long time. Since the first president of Ghana, His Excellency Osagefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in the late 1950s’ built a guest house on top of the hill. The forest environment had many wild animals like the lion, monkey, antelopes, elephants and different spices of birds. In addition, the White Volta which cut across the village through the western side, had crocodiles in the river. The late president had wanted to develop this community into a tourist area, but his time was short. Other governments failed to see it as a great potential investment to the nation. The guest house had since been left to the mercy of the weather. This has made all the facilities to deteriorate.
Formal education started very late in this community. Up to date, non-of the children have even graduated senior high school, not to talk of a polytechnic or the university. The value of education has still not been realized in this community. This accounts to reason why there is the need to set up this herbal pro-poor project community to be able to help the educational standard of the youth to be able to catch up with the rest of the world. Some proceed from this tour activities will go to support the education of these underprivileged young ones. It will also create some job opportunities for the youth.