|
Tribe Snapshots Kabre |
| Location: |
Northeastern Togo |
| Population: |
225,000 |
| Language: |
Kabre (Voltaic) |
| Neighboring
Peoples: |
Mamprussi, Dagomba, Mossi, Bariba,
Akan |
| Types
of Art: |
Kabre art forms are usually tied to initiation
and also include a rich musical tradition. |
| History: |
Population buildup in the mountainous area of
northern Togo, where Kabre live today, occurred
during the 17th and 18th centuries in response
to the slave raiding practices of the northern
kingdoms of Malprussi, Dagomba, Mossi, and Bariba.
In an effort to escape these militaristic states,
people fled southward into the mountain region,
which was more difficult to attack. Despite these
efforts, Kabre peoples were still caught up in
regional slave trade. Located, as they are, so
close to the Asante and Dahomey kingdoms, both
of which sold slaves directly to European merchants,
the Kabre supplied slaves to these and other powerful
centralized states. Perhaps in an effort to maintain
societal stability, Kabre sold their own kin into
slavery, rather than suffer the consequences of
slave raids. |
| Economy: |
Kabre economy centers around what is known as
presentational gift giving. This means that most
surplus is given away to other community members
in an effort to foster social ties, which in time
may lead to intermarriage and familial ties. Crops
in the region include yams, millet, and peanuts.
Sorghum is grown largely for use in local beer
production. Although markets do exist in Kabre
land, economic exchange is rooted in practices
of bartering, where something is exchanged for
something of equal value, rather than exchanged
for cash, which can be used to buy things produced
outside of the local economy. |
| Political
Systems: |
Stability in Kabre society is maintained through
complex levels of gift giving and exchange. Historically,
Kabre land was uncentralized, and on occasion
tribute was demanded by their centralized neighbors.
Families do own land, but often this land is lent
out to others in order to establish gift giving
ties, and products which grow naturally on fallow
land are not considered the property of the owner.
Political ties are cemented through marriage between
two families, which usually occurs only after
years of gift exchange and the formation of lifelong
ties between individuals (ikpanture). What begins
as lower level exchanges involving yams and sorghum,
may eventually lead to the exchange of meat and
beer and eventually to the exhange of women between
families. |
| Religion: |
Kabre recognize the role the ancestors played
in the formation of society. They are remembered
as previous owners of the land and are thanked
annually for the contribution they made to the
development of agriculture in the area. Ancestors
are remembered for the work they put into making
the fields. A portion of each year's crops is
set aside for the ancestors and offered to them
as an expression of gratitude. Kabre believe in
witchcraft and further believe that a witch receives
money in exchange for eating an individual. Given
the relative disdain for cash exchanges outlined
above, it is possible to imagine why witches,
symbolically charged with representing what is
unacceptable to the society, would be paid in
currency. |
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