The Silanke are a very friendly group of people spread out over 7 villages. They are called Sininkere, and their language is called Selankasefe or Sininkere. The villages are all quite small and surrounded by a wall (not for security but as a simple perimeter within which they have their individual huts. Each village has a chief and the entire tribe of 7 villages has one main chief who lives in the village closest to the main road where the weekly market is -- about a 10 minute walk.
Their lives are simple. They are all subsistence farmers. Boys are in the fields helping their dad, while girls are in the village helping their mom. They eat two meals per day, breakfast is the cold left-overs from dinner. Every meal is exactly the same, ground millet cooked into a paste which is then scooped with the fingers and rolled around in a slimy sauce they make from leaves and fish oil. This helps it slide down the throat easier. In the evening, everyone sits in a circle and eats together. Sometimes the children dance. They take care of one another like a socialist society.
They are Muslims and each village has a small mosque. They practice the tenets of Islam and are very faithful to pray at the correct times each day. They are polygamists, but only the chiefs have multiple wives.
They have few needs. They have access to clean drinking water from a sealed well with a hand pump, and they farm for their food. At one point someone found some gold in the ground and everyone dug for months. They then gave the gold to the chief who took it to town to sell. They don't have access to basic medicine. They also have zero formal education. Education may be seen as of little importance to them as they survive by farming. Hunger is not a problem for them. During the month of Ramadan they eat goat meat after sundown. This is the only time that they deviate from their normal daily diet.
Scripture Prayers for the Sininkere, Silanke in Burkina Faso.
| Profile Source: Mark Fisher |
