Abstract Post-colonial Africa has witnessed series of conflicts especially in the last fifty years. Ghana has had its fair share of inter- ethnic conflicts in the Northern part of the country. These conflicts have led to loss of lives and property, waste of the nation's scarce resources and retarded development. A historiographical review of works on the subject has generally concluded that, the Mamprusi-Kusasi conflict in Bawku is a legacy of British Colonial policies in Northern Ghana. The main objective of this study is to examine this assertion and to probe other factors such as the attitude of post-colonial governments and the impact of education and urbanization. This study is relevant as it explores all the nuanced factors of the conflict to unearth new knowledge hence widening the frontiers of scholarship.