Total population | |
---|---|
300,000 | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Burkina Faso | 175,000 [1] |
Mali | 125,000 [1] |
Languages | |
Bwamu, French | |
Religion | |
Animism (85%) Christianity (10%) Islam (5%) |
The Bwa is an African society that is native to Burkina Faso. This society has an approximate population of over 300,000 persons. The Bwa people live in a number of individualized communities. They have no central government, and rely on their community standards. They are most known for their scarification and elaborate plank masks. [2]
In the 18th century, Bwa lands were occupied by the Bamana empire who made the Bwa pay taxes. [1] The places left unconquered were raided by the Bamana, which led to a weakening of the Bwa social and political systems. [3] In the 19th century, the Bamana declined and the area was dominated by the Fulani who raided and enslaved the Bwa and stole their livestock. [4] [3] The end of the 19th century brought French mercenaries who used the Fulani to help control the area. [1] The Bwa traditions of storing crops for use in lean years were undermined by the crippling taxation systems of the French and they suffered further from famine from 1911–1913. [3] [5] The French demanded military recruits from the Bwa and in 1915, the Bwa revolted., [1] [3] starting the Volta-Bani War. This war lasted about a year [6] and ended with the destruction of many Bwa villages. [5]
Due to these events, the Bwa turned to their neighboring people, the Nuna. Admiring what they believed to be continuous blessings, the Bwa wanted to adopt some Nuna customs in attempt to please the Nuna God. Obliging, the Nuna taught the Bwa some of their customs and practices. From this, the Bwa purchased the rights to use, wear, and carve wooden masks, their costumes, and the songs and dances that go with them.
The Bwa live in central Burkina Faso and south-east Mali, between Mali's Bani River and the Mouhoun River (Black Volta) in Burkina Faso. [4] Their total population is approximately 300,000. [1] The major towns occupied by the Bwa are Houndé, Boni, Bagassi, Dossi and Pa. [4]
Early European explorers to the area called the Bwa "Bobo", confusing them with their neighbours the Bobo people. [4] Although the two groups share religion and culture, they are ethnically distinct. [5] The confusion led to alternative names for the Bwa including Bobo Oule, or Eastern Bobo. [7] In Jula, Bobo Oule means "Red Bobo". This distinguishes the Bwa from the Bobo who are called the "Black Bobo". [5]
The White Bobo, Bobo Gbe, are also Bwa. [8]
The southern Bwa became known by their neighbours as Nieniegue meaning "scarred Bwa" as a result of the tradition of scarification of their faces and bodies. [4] This practice is no longer commonplace and so the term is also in decline. [4]
There are three professional castes within the Bwa society: the farmers, the musicians, and the blacksmiths.
Farming has been a constant way of life for the Bwa. It is their primary source of income with their most successful crop being cotton. Besides cotton, though, the Bwa are known to harvest certain grains such as millet, rice, sorghum, yams, and peanuts. [1] These crops along with other grains and various fruits are used for both nutritional and medicinal purposes.
Music is integral to the Bwa's traditional ceremonies and rituals. While they do use drums, the Bwa are known to craft and play flutes carved from wood.
Blacksmiths in the Bwa society work mostly with bronze to craft masks, figures, utensils, and jewelry. These works can be bought and sold, used for personal use, and/or are utilized during rituals.
Bwa villages are autonomous and they do not recognise any outside political authority. They are led by a council of male elders who make all the major decisions. [1]
The Bwa speak Bwa languages, a closely related group of Gur languages of the Niger–Congo family. [9] Some speak Jula (Dioula) for trading and communication with outsiders, and French is also used. [9]
The creator deity of the Bwa is known as Wuro, a god who designed the earth with the intention of establishing balance. Wuro was said to be hurt by a human, and in return, he decided to send his eldest son Dwo to act as the communication line between him and the people. Wuro had three sons: Dwo, the god of rebirth, Soxo, the god of the wilderness, and Kwere, the lightning god. Two and his significance is heavily depicted in the Boni Bwa's ceremonial leaf masks. Animism is the main religious belief practiced by the Bwa. In fact, the art work that the Bwa are known for is primarily used for animist practices—specifically that of Nuna origin.
Nuna practices still hold firm in the Bwa culture. In relation, there is a group called the Cult of Do (or Dwo). They are led by the village's eldest male member, the Labie (also known as the earth priest.) [10]
With that being said, they have also adopted both Islam and Christianity as a result of their prior invasions.
While the Bwa are famous for their masks, it is the purpose behind the pieces that provides the real significance. Using these masks, along with scepters and diverse body adornments, the Bwa will dance and perform these items in representation of different spirits. Those Bwa members who have gone through initiation—a process of transitioning from a child to an adult member of society—are grouped together in age grades. During ceremonies, they adorn and praise the masks that are being performed as a group. It is also important to note that these mask performances are not gender specific. Women are very much a part of these events just as much as their male counterparts. [11]
The Bwa use various divination sculptures and carvings to carry out significant ceremonies and practices. While sculpted figures are a rare art of the Bwa's, the pieces would be used for events such as divination ceremonies, fertility rituals, and offered sacrifices. [12]
The Bwa masks are usually black and white; additional colors are subject to individual carvers and their styles. Animal depictions are a common attribute of the works. Plank Masks are the most known style of masks for this society. they are vertically shaped and attached to a disk-like base. Decoration is subject to change, but it mostly comes down to zigzags, squares, and circles. The Bwa also make horizontal and heterogenous masks. Heterogenous masks have an ovoid head with round and/or diamond eyes. Sometimes, the artist will choose to add on designs such as crescents or human figures. [13]
The Bwa are well known for their use of traditional tribal masks. [4] There are several types of masks produced by the Bwa that are used in traditional rituals.
In particular the Southern Bwa are known for their tall plank masks, known as nwantantay, and tend to use wood to make their masks. [4] [3] This is a result of their adoption of Nuna religion and their traditions of using wooden masks. [4] The religion associated with wooden masks is focused on the spirit Lanle, whose power is manifested through the wooden masks. Nwantantay can also be made of polychrome by the blacksmiths. Built in horizontal shapes, these masks can represent different animals and have specific designs. For example, a butterfly mask would have concentric circles, while a hawk mask would have a plain white surface. these masks are worn for female entertainment. [12]
The northern Bwa use leaf masks more than wooden ones. [3] These leaf masks frequently represent Dwo in religious ceremonies. [15] The masks also represent the bush spirits including serpents, monkeys, buffalo and hawks. [3] Mask performances generally take place in the dry season between February and May. [4]
Blacksmiths are also known to make utensils and body adornments for their people. These pieces, much like the masks, tend to represent animals and their attributes associated with them. For example, a blacksmith may use a hyena to show stupidity or a bush cow to symbolize strength. The most common depictions are of the double chameleon and the hornbill. The chameleon would be mostly used by women who want to have children but cannot. [13]
Flutes are used daily. They are usually played in sets of 5 to 9 pieces. By playing short diverse patterns in an interlocking form, the musicians tell a story. It is a form of communication—reproducing the speech of tonal languages. They are commonly accompanied by dances. [13]
Burkina Faso, is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2. In 2021, the country had an estimated population of approximately 23,674,480. Previously called the Republic of Upper Volta (1958–1984), it was renamed Burkina Faso by former president Thomas Sankara. Its citizens are known as Burkinabè, and its capital and largest city is Ouagadougou.
The Senufo people, also known as Siena, Senefo, Sene, Senoufo, and Syénambélé, are a West African ethnolinguistic group. They consist of diverse subgroups living in a region spanning the northern Ivory Coast, the southeastern Mali and the western Burkina Faso. One sub-group, the Nafana, is found in north-western Ghana.
Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara was a Burkinabè military officer, Marxist revolutionary and Pan-Africanist who served as President of Burkina Faso from his coup in 1983 to his assassination in 1987.
African art describes modern and historical paintings, sculptures, installations, and other visual culture from native or indigenous Africans and the African continent. The definition may also include the art of the African diasporas, such as African-American, Caribbean or art in South American societies inspired by African traditions. Despite this diversity, there are unifying artistic themes present when considering the totality of the visual culture from the continent of Africa.
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Bobo-Dioulasso is a city in Burkina Faso with a population of 1,129,000 ; it is the second-largest city in the country, after Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital. The name means "home of the Bobo-Dioula".
The Bambara are a Mandé ethnic group native to much of West Africa, primarily southern Mali, Ghana, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Senegal. They have been associated with the historic Bambara Empire. Today, they make up the largest Mandé ethnic group in Mali, with 80% of the population speaking the Bambara language, regardless of ethnicity.
The Mossi are a Gur ethnic group native to modern Burkina Faso, primarily the Volta River basin. The Mossi are the largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso, constituting 52% of the population, or about 11.1 million people. The other 48% of Burkina Faso's population is composed of more than 60 ethnic groups, mainly the Gurunsi, Senufo, Lobi, Bobo, Bissa and Fulani. The Mossi speak the Mòoré language.
Balé is one of the 45 provinces of Burkina Faso, located in its Boucle du Mouhoun Region with Boromo as capital. Its area is 4,596 km2 (1,775 sq mi), and had a population of 297,367 in 2019. The province is known for its Deux Balé Forest, populated by savannah elephant herds. Boromo, the provincial capital, is located on the main road from Ouagadougou to Bobo-Dioulasso. In June 2007, the Canadian mining company, Semafo, open the third gold mine in the country in Mana in the province, with an investment of about $116 million.
The culture of Burkina Faso in West Africa is also called the Burkinabé culture.
Articles related to Burkina Faso include:
Traditional African masks are worn in ceremonies and rituals across West, Central, and Southern Africa. They are used in events such as harvest celebrations, funerals, rites of passage, weddings, and coronations. Some societies also use masks to resolve disputes and conflicts.
Football is the most popular sport in Burkina Faso. And the national association can look back on recent developments with a great deal of pride. Reaching the semi-finals of the African Cup of Nations on home soil in 1998, reaching the knockout stage for their first FIFA World Youth Championship in 2003, and appearances at two final competitions of the CAF U-17 Cup, as well as third place at the FIFA U-17 World Championship in Trinidad and Tobago in 2001 are the country's outstanding achievements at international level. The nations most famous players include Kassoum Ouegraogo, nicknamed Zico, who had his most successful seasons with Espérance de Tunis before ending his career in Germany, Siaka Ouattara, who spent his entire career with Mulhouse in France, and Moumouni Dagano, who was voted best African player in Belgium in 2001, when he played for the Belgian side Genk. He later went on to play for the French side Guingamp before transferring to another French team, FC Sochaux in 2005. Burkina Faso received an unexpected free pass into the group stage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification process, when their opening round contestant, the Central African Republic, withdrew from the competition. This gave the West Africans, who were at that stage ranked 14th on the continent, the certainty that their name would be in the hat when the Preliminary Draw for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany was made. They got off to a flying start, beating Ghana 1-0 in their opening match and laying down a marker for their Group 2 adversaries South Africa, Cape Verde Islands, Congo DR and Uganda. The victory train began to come off the rails with two defeats to Cape Verde, and with a record of two wins and three losses, Burkina Faso were up against it at the half-way stage. Frenchman Bernard Simondi took over the coaching reins from Ivica Todorov and made the team harder to beat at home, even recording wins over South Africa and Congo DR, but in the end it was not quite enough, and the likes of Abdoulaye Cisse, Moumouni Dagano, and Wilfred Sanou went no further in the competition.
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The Bo language of West Africa, Bomu (Boomu), also identified as Western Bobo Wule, is a Gur language of Burkina Faso and Mali.
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The Nuna people, or Nunuma, are subgroup of the Gurunsi people in Southern Burkina Faso, estimated 150,000 population, and Ghana. The Nuna are known for their masks. The group speaks the Nuni language.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
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