Bassa (Liberia)
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__NOTOC__ The Bassa people are a
West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...
n ethnic group primarily native to Liberia. The Bassa people are a subgroup of the larger
Kru people The Kru, Krao, Kroo, or Krou are a West African ethnic group who are indigenous to western Ivory Coast and eastern Liberia. European and American writers often called Kru men who enlisted as sailors or mariners Krumen. They migrated and settl ...
of Liberia and Ivory Coast. They form a majority or a significant minority in Liberia's Grand Bassa, Rivercess, Margibi and
Montserrado Montserrado County is a county in the northwestern portion of the West African nation of Liberia containing its national capital, Monrovia. One of 15 counties that comprise the first-level of administrative division in the nation, it has 17 sub p ...
counties. In Liberia's capital of
Monrovia Monrovia () is the administrative capital city, capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liber ...
, they are the largest ethnic group. With an overall population of about 1.05 million, they are the second largest ethnic group in Liberia (18%), after the
Kpelle people The Kpelle people (also known as the ''Guerze, Kpwesi, Kpessi, Sprd, Mpessi, Berlu, Gbelle, Bere, Gizima,'' or ''Buni'') are the largest ethnic group in Liberia. They are located primarily in an area of central Liberia, extending into Guinea. T ...
(26%).People and Society: Liberia
CIA Factbook, United States
Small Bassa communities are also found in Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. The Bassa speak the
Bassa language The Bassa language is a Kru language spoken by about 783,000 Bassa people in Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone. Phonology Consonants * /ʄ/ can be heard as a glide intervocalically within compound words. * /ɡ͡b/ when followed by ...
, a
Kru language The Kru languages are spoken by the Kru people from the southeast of Liberia to the west of Ivory Coast. Classification According to Güldemann (2018), Kru lacks sufficient lexical resemblances and noun class resemblances to conclude a relatio ...
that belongs to the Niger-Congo family of languages. They had their own pictographic writing system but it went out of use in the 19th century, was rediscovered among the slaves of Brazil and the West Indies in 1890s, and reconstructed in early 1900 by Thomas Flo Darvin Lewis. The revived signs-based script is called ''Ehni Ka Se Fa''. In local languages, the Bassa people are also known as Gboboh, Adbassa or Bambog-Mbog people.


History

The linguistic evidence and oral traditions of these geographically diverse, small yet significant group suggests that their name ''Bassa'' may be related to ''Bassa Sooh Nyombe'' which means "Father Stone's people". Early European traders had trouble pronouncing the entire phrase, and the shorter form Bassa has been used in Western literature ever since. The Dan people, neighbors of the Bassa in Liberia, were especially attracted to brass jewelry. Dan women wore significant amounts of brass jewelry, as the amount of brass was directly correlated to their husband's wealth. Many Dan women would wear several pairs of anklets and bracelets that could weigh up to 8 pounds each. Until brass jewelry was banned in the late 1930s by Liberia's minister of health, Rudolf Fuszek, that claimed the brass jewelry was the cause of chafing infections and orthopedic problems. The sudden surplus of brass would be melted down and recast for other purposes. The Bassa people are likely responsible for producing some of these new uses for brass among the Dan. they were miniature brass cast masks called ''ma go,'' or "small head".


Society

The Bassa people are traditionally settled farmers who grow yam,
cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...
, eddoes and plantain. They are a lineage-linked independent clans who live in villages, each with a chief. The Bassa people, before colonial occupation, had populations with occupational categories of farmers, barterers / traders, and lagoon fishermen. As well as a set of categories that had hierarchies based on practitioner skill, consisting of blacksmiths, carvers, weavers, potters, and other craftsmen. The Bassa people acquired the ''Port Society'' and ''"Gree-Gree" bush'' traditions of education and initiation of children, from their neighboring ''Dei'' and ''Kpelle'' tribes. The Bassa people are among those that practice the woman initiation society called Sande. (Also referred to as Bondo). The Sande / Bondo sub-culture is believed to be originated from the
Mende people The Mende are one of the two largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone; their neighbours, the Temne people, constitute the largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, ethnic group at 35.5% of the total population, which is slightly larger than the Mende ...
. The practice Sande (or Bondo), which consist of rituals involving special helmet / masks that some practicing cultures called '' Sowei / sowo.'' The masks themselves are not named, and Sowei / sowo refers to the title of the association official that wears the helmet mask. These types of masks are made by numerous cultures leading to some distinction in style, but the purpose of the helmet mask is always a representation of a primordial ancestor spirit that originates from a body of water during a sacred journey by a member or official.


Religion

The traditional religion of the Bassa people has a moral and ethical foundation, one that reveres ancestors and supernatural spirits. The Sande / Bondo helmet masks, worn by a society official during special ceremonies, represent the idealized beauty of a female primordial ancestor spirit, believed to reside in bodies of water. Christianity arrived among the Bassa people during the colonial era, and the first Bible was translated into Bassa language in 1922. The adoption process fused the idea of Christian God with their traditional idea of a Supreme Being and powerful first ancestor who is merciful and revengeful, rewarding the good and punishing the bad. The traditional religion has included secret rites of passage for men and women, such as the Sande society. The introduction of Christianity created a division between the inland Forest Bassa that maintained Bassa traditional practices and rituals, and the Coastal Bassa, that converted to Christianity. Numerous missionaries from different denominations of Christianity have been active among the Bassa people during the 20th century. These has led to many Bassa independent churches from Europe, North America, Africa and Evangelical movements. In contemporary times, the Bassa people predominantly practice
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
, but they have retained elements of their traditional religion.


Village Layout and Architecture

Inland Forest Bassa took extra consideration to the location and layout of villages. The choice of location is determined by simple factors, access to fresh water, good farmland, and the presence of certain reeds for use as roofing material. The layout of the village appears to be disorganized clusters of huts placed seemingly at random but is actually very intentional. The village layout is arranged in such a way, looking in any direction one's line of sight is interrupted by huts, this inability to get bearings as an outsider is specifically for spies and attackers, as they would get lost easily, giving the Bassa, familiar with their own village an advantage. A Bassa village with this layout lacks any sort of main road and do include several empty 'lots' making traveling through the village intentionally difficult and confusing for outsiders.


Art

During the late 1930s, the brass jewelry the Dan wore was banned, the surplus brass from the jewelry was melted down and recast for other things. One of those things were created by the Bassa for the Dan. Those were ''ma go,'' "small head", miniature masks that featured protruding open lips, flared nostrils, and pierced slit eyes, as well as a tattoo pattern from forehead to chin. Another brass work of the Bassa people is the Brass Finial. the Brass Finial is an iron rod that had brass cast over it. the top of the staff features a woman's head, with five rows of hair that run from front to back, as well as an encircling herringbone pattern. According to Bassa legend, the staff was the walking stick of a mythical ancestor by the name of ''Sma Vlen.'' Who was believed to have migrated towards the coast during the 16th century. Bassa Masks were wood carved and are distinguished from neighboring peoples own masks through a style that gives the masks angular faces. With the mask, the wearer would also wear a braided bonnet, fastened at an angle to the forehead. Other Bassa Masks have perorated eyes but are not worn directly on the face of the performer, but rather fastened to the forehead area of a weaved basket that is worn by the performer. Bassa Masks have a hierarchy based on the purpose that each mask is meant to fulfill, whether it be private or for a ritual. One type of Bassa masks are made with the intent of projecting reverence and fear with monstrous face with protruding eyes, swollen lips and contorted human and animal features. These masks depict the likeness of spirits from the darkest parts of the forest. The next type of mask are the portrait masks created exclusively by skilled carvers following tribal sculptural laws passed down by masters of the craft for generations. These masks are made to embody the defined concepts of beauty, within this category are ancestor masks, meant to give leniency, be at peace, and promise peace to heirs. these masks are deliberately made to not resemble specific individuals. An exception to the making of a mask that resembles a specific individual came when there was a need to accustom the people of a village to the disfigurement of someone. A mask in their likeness was made and used by a performer that danced with crowds and told jokes, giving the features of the individual's disfigurement positive association, as part of deliberate act of social to prevent a member of the village from becoming an outcast. Another type of portrait masks, known in English as "devil" masks are worn by soothsayers and various performers like acrobats and jugglers, and said wearers are agents of social control.


References


Sources

*Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'', Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International
Online version
*Somah, Syrulwa (2003), ''Nyanyan Gohn-Manan History, Migration and Government of the Bassa''; Lightning Source Inc.


External links


For spirits and kings: African art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman collection
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, contains material on the Bassa people {{authority control Ethnic groups in Liberia