Bassari in Guinea

Introduction / History

The Bassari people primarily reside along the Senegal-Guinea border, with several hundred in Guinea-Bissau. They settled in the region between the 11th and 19th centuries, establishing hilltop villages that provided defensible vantage points over the plains. These settlements consisted of circular thatched huts arranged around a central space. Today, the Bassari live in Senegal, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau.

The Bassari people, living along the Senegal-Guinea border, are an ancient ethnic group with roots in the Tenda linguistic family. They migrated southward to escape conflicts with expanding empires like Mali and later Fulani jihads.

What Are Their Lives Like?

The Bassari are primarily subsistence farmers, cultivating crops using basic tools. Staple foods include maize, manioc, and rice, supplemented by squash, melons, sweet potatoes, peppers and tomatoes. They also grow tree crops such as bananas, coconuts, mangoes and papayas. While they raise cattle, sheep, and goats, they do not typically use their milk. In addition to agriculture, they gather wild fruits, roots, berries, and nuts like kola, shea and palm.

Men are responsible for hunting, fishing, clearing land, and tending cattle, while women gather wild foods and assist with farming. Village chiefs hold political authority, with succession usually passing to the next brother or to the oldest son of the deceased chief's oldest sister.

Bassari families live in extended family compounds, each comprising a cluster of huts arranged in a circle around an open space, often enclosed by a hedge, fence, or wall. These compounds adjoin to form compact villages. Dwellings are generally round with mud walls and cone-shaped, thatched roofs.

Initiation ceremonies at puberty include male circumcision and sometimes female circumcision, often involving a period of instruction in an isolated "bush school." The Bassari tolerate premarital sex and prefer cousins as marriage partners. The groom's family pays a bride price in livestock, commonly pigs, and the groom typically provides premarital bride service to her family. Polygamy is rare; when it occurs, each wife has her own hut, and the husband spends a fixed period with each on a rotational basis.

What Are Their Beliefs?

Unlike many neighboring groups, the Bassari have largely resisted Islamization, maintaining their animist beliefs and ancestor worship. The Bassari people adhere to the same traditional religion as their ancestors. They worship spirits they believe will provide for their needs without realizing these same spirits will do them eternal harm. There are some Christians among them, but we consider the Bassari an unreached people group.

The Bassari people of the Senegal-Guinea border follow a traditional animist belief system centered on nature worship and ancestral veneration. They believe that spirits inhabit natural elements such as trees, rivers, and sacred groves, which serve as sites for rituals and community gatherings. Ancestors are highly revered, with offerings and ceremonies performed to seek their guidance. Initiation rites are a crucial part of their culture, marking the transition to adulthood through symbolic rituals and endurance tests.

While many Bassari maintain their Indigenous spiritual practices, some have adopted Christianity, particularly Catholicism and Protestantism, though Islam has little presence among them.

What Are Their Needs?

Their development challenges include:

Infrastructure Many Bassari communities are in remote areas with poor road networks, making transportation difficult, particularly during the rainy season. Electricity access is limited, with most villages relying on traditional energy sources like firewood and kerosene lamps. Clean water is often scarce, leading to dependence on wells, rivers, and rainwater, which increases the risk of waterborne diseases due to poor sanitation.

Healthcare There is a lack of healthcare facilities in Bassari regions, with many people having to travel long distances to access medical care. Clinics often face shortages of medicine, equipment, and trained medical personnel. Common health issues include malaria, respiratory infections, and waterborne diseases, while maternal and child healthcare remains inadequate due to the limited presence of midwives and prenatal care services.

Education Schools are few and far between in Bassari communities, leading to low literacy rates, especially among women and girls. Many schools suffer from a lack of qualified teachers, teaching materials and adequate infrastructure. Language barriers also pose a challenge, as formal education is primarily conducted in French, while the Bassari people speak their own indigenous language, making early education difficult for many children.

Economic Development and Livelihoods The Bassari primarily engage in subsistence farming, growing crops such as millet, maize and peanuts. Outdated farming techniques and a lack of modern tools limit productivity. Poor road infrastructure makes market access difficult, reducing opportunities for trade and economic growth. Additionally, youth unemployment is high, with few opportunities for vocational training, forcing many young people to migrate to urban areas in search of work.

Prayer Points

There are a number of Christian believers among the Bassari living in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. Pray the Holy Spirit will thrust some of these out to take Christ to the Bassari and help disciple the few believers already there.
Pray for abundant crops for the Bassari and for health care facilities.
Pray this will be the season of spiritual harvest among the Bassari people, leading them to make disciples throughout West Africa.

Text Source:   Joshua Project