|
Tribe Snapshots Mossi |
| Location: |
Central Burkina
Faso |
| Population: |
3.5 million |
| Language: |
Moré (Voltaic) |
| Neighboring
Peoples: |
Dogon, Kurumba,
Gourmantche, Gurunsi, Bisa, Dagomba, Sisala |
| Types
of Art: |
The Mossi make both political art and spiritual
art. Figures are used by the ruling class to validate
political power, and masks are used by the conquered
peoples to control the forces of nature. Each
year at the annual celebrations of the royal ancestors,
figures of the deceased kings are displayed. On
many occasions each year, especially during the
long dry season from October to May, masks appear
to honor the spirits of nature that control the
forces of the environment The several mask styles
reflect the diversity of the population before
the 15th century invasion. Long tall masks in
the north are made by the descendants of the conquered
Dogon population, while red, white, and black
animal masks in the southwest are made by descendants
of the conquered Gurunsi peoples. |
| History: |
The Mossi states were created about 1500 A.D.,
when bands of horsemen rode north from what is
now northern Ghana into the basin of the Volta
River and conquered several less powerful peoples,
including Dogon, Lela, Nuna, and Kurumba. These
were integrated into a new society call Mossi,
with the invaders as chiefs and the conquered
as commoners. The emperor of the Mossi is the
Moro Naba, who lives in the ancient and contemporary
capital, Ouagadougou. In the centuries between
1500 and 1900 the Mossi were a major political
and military force in the bend of the Niger River
and were effective in resisting the movements
of Muslim Fulani armies across the Sudan area
of west Africa. In 1897 the first French military
explorers arrived in the area and staked French
colonial claims. During the sixty years of French
colonial rule the Mossi population was exploited
as a source of human labor for French plantations
in Côte d'Ivoire. In 1960 Burkina Faso gained
its independence from the French. The first elected
president Ouezzin Coulibaly was succeeded by Maurice
Yameogo, a Mossi. In 1967 a coup-d'état put in
place a military government that has ruled with
infrequent change ever since. |
| Economy: |
The Mossi are primarily farmers, raising millet,
sorghum, maize, sesame, peanuts, and indigo. The
latter three are cash crops that are raised for
export. Large numbers of Mossi live in the urban
centers of Ouagadougou, Ouahigouya, Kaya, Yako,
Koudougou. During the colonial period the French
exercised a policy of deliberate underdevelopment
intended to force Mossi laborers to leave their
homes following the harvest and migrate by the
French-built railroad to Côte d'Ivoire where they
worked in French-owned factories and plantations.
From the founding of the Mossi states to the present
the economy of Burkina Faso and of the Mossi benefitted
from their position astride major trade routes
between the forest and the desert and from the
open trade policies of the government surrounded
by countries such as Ghana and Mali which restricted
trade. |
| Political
Systems: |
The Mossi are unique in Burkina Faso for their
centralized and hierarchical political system.
The nakomse are the ruling class and are directed
descendants of the first invaders from the south.
At the apex of political hierarchy is the emperor
(Moro Naba), whose palace is in Ouagadougou, the
capital of Burkina Faso. Chiefs (nabas) rule over
each of the regions of Mossi country and pay homage
to the emperor. Each chief presides over a political
hierarchy of local officials who are responsible
for raising armies, levying taxes, etc. The nyonyose
are the descendants of the conquered peoples who
lived in the region before the Mossi arrived. |
| Religion: |
The descendants of the conquered farmers (nyonyose)
honor nature spirits that provide them with supernatural
power to control the weather, disease, crop failure,
and general well-being. These are the "invented
spirits" that become important as the congregation
faces a particular affliction and which decrease
in influence as the problem is solved. These spirits
are often represented by masks and figures that
make them visible and concrete. The spirits themselves
provide, through the diviner, the religious laws
that govern the community and so provide a system
of sacred rule. The creator god Wennam is associated
with the sun and with the political hierarchy
(nakomse). The spiritual power of the nyonyose
based on nature spirits is in direct opposition
to the secular power of the nakomse based on the
horse and associated with the sun. Among the most
important religious celebrations are annual sacrifices
to honor the memories of the royal ancestors,
when each and every male head of a household reaffirms
his dependence on the benevolence of the chief
and his ancestors for health and well-being of
his family. |
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