Bassari people

The Bassari are an ethnic group who live in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.[1] They are a matrilineal society stratified into different co ed social groups by age.[2] The Bassari speak a Tenda language, o-niyan. They refer to themselves as a-liyan, pl. bi-liyan. They have close relations with the Fula people centered locally in the nearby hills of the Fouta Djallon.[3] The Bassari are subsistence farmers for the most part, growing rice, millet, earth-peas and fonio.[4]

Culture and Society

Population and Migration

The total population is between 10,000 and 30,000. Most of the Bassari are concentrated on either side of the Senegal-Guinea border southwest of Kedougou, Kédougou Region. This areas is referred to in French as Pays Bassari, or liyan in the Bassari language.[citation needed They migrate to the cities and towns of Senegal and Guinea in the dry season in search of wage-labor, using the money they earn to buy household equipment, clothing and other necessary items.[5]

Religious Belief

Most of the group are animists, with a significant minority of Christians (both Catholic and Protestant). Very few Bassari are Muslims.[6]

The mythology of the Bassari is centered on the creation god Unumbotte.[7]

Art

The Bassari have a long standing tradition of metallurgy which have been included in European records since the late 19th century. Importing materials through trade with the Coniagui for iron ore and Fula for copper, the Bassari process these metals within their own line of blacksmiths to craft tools and jewlry.[2]

References
  1. Project, Joshua. "Bassari in Guinea". joshuaproject.net. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  2. Gessain, Monique (1984). Brincard, Marie-Therese (ed.). "Jewels of the Bassari Family". Beauty By Design: The Aesthetics of African Adornment. OCLC 44086513.
  3. Bassari. in Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Accessed 2009-06-06.
  4. Angelo (2020-02-27). "Beyond the local: The geographical spread of climate change impacts in the Bassari landscape (Senegal) - LICCI News". LICCI. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  5. Nolan, Riall W. (2019-04-11). Bassari Migrations: The Quiet Revolution. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-71247-0.
  6. "The religion and rituals of the Bassari". Exploring Africa. 2018-02-04. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  7. Manfred Lurker. The Routledge Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons. Routledge, Nov 11, 2004 pg. 191
  • Gessain, Monique 1967, Les Migrations des Coniagui et Bassari, Paris, Mémoires de la Société des Africanistes.
  • Nolan, Riall 1986, Bassari Migrations: The Quiet Revolution, Boulder, Westview Press.

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