|
Tribe Snapshots Bobo |
| Location: |
Western Burkina Faso, Mali |
| Population: |
110,000 |
| Language: |
Bobo (Mande) |
| Neighboring
Peoples: |
Senufo, Bamana, Lobi, and Bwa |
| Types
of Art: |
Masks fashioned from leaf, fiber, cloth, and
wood are usually worn with leaf and fiber costumes.
The major context is men's initiation. |
| History: |
The Bobo have lived in the region for centuries,
with some estimates dating back to 800 A.D. It
is generally believed that they moved into this
area from the north. One of the primary reasons
for this thinking is that they speak a language
considered to be part of the Mande family, which
originates to the north in Mali. Throughout the
history of the region, other peoples, like the
Zara, have also moved into the area, influencing
the Bobo and sometimes being either partially
or wholly absorbed into Bobo agricultural society. |
| Economy: |
Farming among the Bobo is of primary importance.
Agricultural activity is not merely a way of providing
for subsistance among the Bobo, it is the essential
component of their day-to-day existence. The major
food crops are red sorghum, pearl millet, yams,
and maize. They also cultivate cotton, which is
sold to textile mills in Koudougou. The imposition
of colonial rule and the construction of these
mills led to the disintegration of the local cooperative
labor systems, which had served to bond the members
of Bobo society together. |
| Political
Systems: |
The Bobo are an inherently decentralized people.
Each village is basically autonomous and is organized
according to the relationship among individual
patrilineages. The concept of placing political
power in the hands of an individual is foreign
to the Bobo, whose cosmologic views would be seriously
questioned by the existence of such an order. |
| Religion: |
The creator god of the Bobo is Wuro, who is
never physically represented and cannot be described
in words. Wuro is responsible for the ordering
of all things in the world into pairs, which must
always remain balanced. However, man, through
his everyday existence, is likely to upset this
balance. Thus, the Bobo religious system involves
restoring order through a series of offerings.
The main god responsible for communication between
man and Wuro is Dwo, who is physically revealed
through the extensive masking traditions of the
Bobo. |
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