- Bassari people
The Bassari people are an African people living in
Senegal ,Gambia ,Guinea andGuinea-Bissau . 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. This areas is referred to in French as "Pays Bassari", or "liyan" in the Bassari language.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.
The Bassari are subsistence farmers for the most part, growing rice, millet, earth-peas and fonio. 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.
Sources:
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.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
