Koulango (plural: Koulam) means subject, vassal, and appears to have been given by princes Dagomba who organized the realm of Bouna towards 1.600. In past, these people were called Loron and their domain extended widely in the current voltaic territory. Their society without state, of type paléonégritude, was profoundly transformed by the newcomers; they then began to organize small chieftainships, as Nassian and Barabo, and to penetrate in forest. In their religion, the cult of the ancestors is sharply darkened by that of the spirits of the nature, which expresses itself by secret societies ", in charge of the initiation and masks of which are the main realization of the art Koulango. "