Paga and the Crocodile Legend

Today I visited the town of Paga, which is located in the Upper East Region of Ghana along the Ghana Burkina Faso boarder.  There we visited a sacred crocodile pool.  The pool is said to hold over 200 crocodiles. 

With Elizabeth Gibbs and Julia Welch

Crocodiles are sacred to the tribe living in this part of the country and residents traditionally view killing a croc to be as sinful as homicide.  Local tradition states that Paga was founded in 1670 by Naveh Kampala who was the grandson of an important chief, whose totem was a crocodile.  When Naveh’s grandfather died, Naveh’s father Paniogo lost out in the succession dispute for the chief position.  He and his followers were forced to flee from their village.  Their way was blocked by a raging river and with the new chief and his soldiers in hot pursuit, Paniogo desperately asked a nearby crocodile to help them cross the river, in exchange he and his followers would never again harm a crocodile.  The crocodile agreed and swam to the middle of the river and beat his tail so hard that the waters of the river parted and group was able to pass safely to the opposite bank of the river before the waters crashed back blocking the pursuers’ path.  The group settled in a place called Kampala (which today is located in Burkina Faso) and Paniogo declared the crocodile to be sacred.  

Many years later, Paniogo’s son Naveh was out hunting and fell into an aardvark hole and was trapped for two days.  A crocodile living in the hole saw that Naveh was dying and showed him an escape route and took him to a pool to quench his thirst.  In thanks, Naveh reaffirmed his father’s pledge to the crocodile, but when he returned home he realized that the town’s people had broken their promise by killing and eating crocodiles.  He decided to move away from Kampala with his family.  After many months of searching he came across the banks of a crocodile-infested pool and cried out “A yi paga ywo!” or “This place pleases my eyes!”  The name Paga is derived from this statement and Naveh become the first Paga Pai (Chief of Paga) and instated crocodiles as the town’s totem. 


We made a pledge with this croc . . . if it did not eat us,
we would feed it a chicken!

It is said that no person has ever been harmed by one of the crocodiles of Paga; although our guide stated that many goats have wondered a bit too close to the pools and have gotten “chopped!”