Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Bassa

Within the context of African religion, the term Bassa has strong geopolitical and historical connotations. In historico-geographic terms, the Bassa people have Kemetic origins, having migrated from Egypt following the collapse of the Adbassa Empire in the 6th century to Bassa-ri, Land of the Bassa, which include portions of modern-day Senegal, Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo, and Cameroon. Oral historical accounts indicate that the term Bassa seems to relate to the combination of the words Baab, meaning “father,” and soob, meaning “stone.” Thus, one could derive the name Father Stone from Bassa. Indeed, an important king was given that name in Bassa history. Supposedly European merchants, attempting to negotiate relations with their African counterparts in the 15th century, struggled to pronounce Baab Soob Nyombe, meaning “Father Stone's people.”

The people are known as Gboboh, Adbassa, or Bambog-Mbog, an initiate of their patriarch and elder, Mbog, offering sacrifices of thanksgiving to metaphysical forces for protection and blessings—rights of appropriation, in ethnological terms, consistently had political influence in all of their settlements.

The Bassa people live in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Cameroon. They are found in the central region of the Grand Bassa in Liberia, Rivercess, and Montserrado counties, and in Cameroon they are found in the Littoral, Central, and South provinces. Some Bassa are found in Togo and are called Basari; in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, they are called the Bassa Mpoku. Culturally, the Bassa people are classified under Niger-Congo. Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benu-Congo, Bantoid, Southern Northwest, and Basaa include such dialects as Basa, Bisaa, Mbele, Mee, Tupen, Bikyek, Mbene, Bicek, Mvele, Bakem, Ndokama, Basso, Ndogbele, Bibeng, Bon, Log, Mpo, Mbang, Myamtam, Diboum, and Ndokpenda. This entry looks at their language and religious beliefs.

Language

The ability of the Bassa language to communicate different meanings in one word presents the Bassa not only as wordsmiths, but it speaks to their intellectual ingenuity and ability to influence opinion. Proverbs, a typical mode of expression among the elderly, are aimed at soliciting important information. They provide primary and deeper meanings that must match the context in which they are used. Proverbs are mostly used in formal settings and during solemn discourse such as family meetings, court proceedings presided by the village chief, meetings of the council of elders, or during discussions on how to lead a morally upright life.

Bassa proverbs usually point to difficult and complex problems whose solutions require pragmatic reasoning, hence to understand them careful discernment of the terms in their totality is expected. For example, “The elders can always find the crab's heart” suggests that elderly people are smart and brilliant enough because of experience to locate the most difficult of objects; therefore, they can locate any problem and solve it. Due to their longevity, experiences full of patience, careful scrutiny, and repertoire of knowledge, the elderly person can find the crab's heart.

On the psycholinguistic and semantic levels, Bassa constructs the brand of a powerful language with apt imagery and multivariate meanings. The Bassa of Cameroon address themselves within the same context of a pluralinguistic community with supernatural potential. They are Bon ba Ngock (“Children of the Rock”) and Bon ba Mbog Liaa (“Children of the Tradition of the Rock”). They are associated with Hilolombi, The Supreme Being, the Most High. Hilolombi comprises three roots: the normative article hi, complementing iloo (to surpass), and the adjective nlombi (ancient) when combined means “The-Greatest, Eldest” or “The-Greatest-Because-The-Eldest.” Given that Hilolombi, the Supreme Being, is neither male nor female, but a divine authority with grandeur, one capable of mercy provides the basis for mitigating male and female principles in the Bass-ri.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution