Gonja tradition and scholarship trace the founding of the kingdom to Mande-speaking horsemen and traders from the Mali / Upper Niger region who moved south, under Naba'a and later Ndewura Jakpa. The ruling Ngbanya estate is therefore described as Mande in origin, though it adopted a Guang language, and Muslim lineages of Mande (Jula/Soninke) origin such as the Kamaghate supplied Gonja's imams.
Gonja chronicles emphasise the Mande connections of the ruling dynasty.