Origin and Migration
The direct origin of the Gyabo people is not fully known. It is believed that the ancestries of the Gyabos began their movement during the pre-historic era as part of groups of monadic societies described as “stateless societies” as contained of in the history of West Africa edited by J. F. Ajayi professor of History, University of Ibadan and Michael Crowder, Professor of History, Abdullahi College, Ahmadu Bello University.
The movement of these societies had been attributed to gross inequalities in land distribution and other injustices. These ills prompted the sporadic movement of both individuals and groups. As a result, the congruence between the genealogical, spatial and social relations was disrupted and it led to what is known as “disjunctive migration” as the order of the day. In other words, disadvantaged individuals and groups had no alternative, but to abandon their closed genealogical relations and negotiated settlements with other groups to which they had little or no relationship.
It is also believed that the Gyabo ancestries were among the populations which exhibited disjunctive migration throughout West Africa in search of favorable conditions for settlement. The Gyabo ancestries traveled through Western Ivory Coast and landed in ancient “Jeddeh Yeh” where modern Grand Gedeh County is now located. It had been disclosed by the narrators that it was in this mountainous region the first ancient settlement of Gyabo ancestries was established. These accounts also mentioned that further migration of the Gyabo genealogical groups from “Jeddeh Yeh” led them toward the eastern Atlantic Coast where they established another major settlement at Dezwan commonly know among the Gyabo people as Gyabo Dezwan. At Dezwan, the Gyabo genealogical linkage which comprised three brothers and their respective descendants were settled for an approximated period of half a century.