Damongo is the capital of Ghana's Savannah Region and the seat of the Damongo Traditional Area, whose paramount chief's palace sits at the heart of the town — the Yagbonwura's palace, home of the overlord of the Gonja Kingdom. **Where it is.** Damongo lies in the West Gonja Municipality, roughly 120 km west of Tamale on the road toward Sawla and Wa, and it is the administrative capital of the Savannah Region, one of the six regions carved out of the old Northern Region in 2019. The town sits on the edge of the Mole National Park corridor — Mole's main gate at Larabanga is only about 30–40 km away — which makes Damongo the natural staging town for safari visitors. **The traditional authority.** Damongo is the capital of the Gonja traditional state, and the paramount ruler is the **Yagbonwura**, the king of Gonja, whose palace (the *Yagbon* palace) is in Damongo. The Gonja kingdom was founded in the 17th century by Ndewura Jakpa, the legendary Mande warrior-king whose sons founded the various Gonja divisions — so the Damongo chieftaincy is not a small local stool but the apex of a whole kingdom that stretches across Savannah and parts of the North East and Northern regions. The Yagbonwura is one of the most senior chiefs in Ghana and sits prominently in the National House of Chiefs. **The palace area.** The Yagbonwura's palace is the ceremonial and political centre of Damongo — a walled compound of traditional Gonja architecture where the chief holds court, receives visitors, and where major festivals and durbars are staged. Around it cluster the customary institutions: the elders, the linguists (*Kuntiliwura* and other court officials), and the regalia houses. The palace grounds are also where the great Gonja festival — **Damba** — is celebrated, with drumming, dancing, and the firing of muskets in the Gonja tradition. **Practical notes for a visit.** Damongo is a quiet, largely Muslim Gonja town with a mixed population of Gonja, Dagomba, and settler communities, and it hosts the Damongo campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) as well as a nurses' training college. If you intend to visit the palace area, dress modestly, go through the linguist or an elder rather than walking straight to the chief, and never enter the inner courtyard uninvited — that is the same protocol at every Ghanaian palace. One caution: I don't have a verified, up-to-the-minute record of the *current* Yagbonwura's personal name and enstoolment date in front of me — that's a chieftaincy fact that changes and is sometimes disputed, and I won't guess it. If you need the reigning Yagbonwura's name confirmed, say the word and I'll search deeper for you. As the Akan say, *"Ɔhene nni aseɛ a, ɔman nni aseɛ"* — when the chief is not seated, the town is not settled. In Damongo, the palace is the town.