Bassari people

The Bassari are people who live in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.[1] 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.

Religious belief

The Bassari speak a Tenda language, o-niyan. They refer to themselves as a-liyan, pl. bi-liyan. Most of the group are animists, with a significant minority of Christians (both Catholic and Protestant). Very few Bassari are Muslims.[2] 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] They also 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]

The mythology of the Bassari is centered on the creation god Unumbotte.[6]

References
  1. Project, Joshua. "Bassari in Guinea". joshuaproject.net. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  2. "The religion and rituals of the Bassari". Exploring Africa. 2018-02-04. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  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. 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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