Senufo people
Total population | |
---|---|
c. 3 million (2013); 0.8 million in Mali | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Northeastern Muslim |
The Senufo people, also known as Siena, Senefo, Sene, Senoufo, and Syénambélé, are a
The Senufo people are predominantly animists,[3] with some who are Muslims.[5] They are regionally famous for their handicrafts, many of which feature their cultural themes and religious beliefs.[6]
Demographics and languages
In the 1980s, estimates placed the total ethnic group population of Senufo people somewhere between 1.5 and 2.7 million.
Their kinship organization is
The term Senufo refers to a linguistic group comprising roughly thirty related dialects within the larger
Korhogo, an ancient town in northern Ivory Coast dating from the 13th century, is linked to the Senufo people. This separation of languages and sub-ethnic groups may be linked to the 14th-century migrations with its founding along with the Bambara trade-route.[11]
History
The Senufo people emerged as a group sometime within the 15th or 16th century.[8] They were a significant part of the 17th to 19th-century Kénédougou Kingdom (literally "country of the plain") with the capital of Sikasso. This region saw many wars including the rule of Daoula Ba Traoré, a cruel despot who reigned between 1840 and 1877.[2][15] The Islamisation of the Senufo people began during this historical period of the Kénédougou Kingdom, but it was the kings & chiefs who converted, while the general Senufo population refused.[2] Daoula Ba Traoré attempted to convert his kingdom to Islam, destroying many villages within the kingdom such as Guiembe and Nielle in 1875 because they resisted his views.[2] The Kénédougou dynastic rulers attacked their neighbors as well, such as the Zarma people and they in turn counterattacked many times between 1883 and 1898.[2]
The pre-colonial wars and violence led to their migration into Burkina Faso in regions that became towns such as Tiembara in Kiembara Department.[2] The Kénédougou kingdom and the Traoré dynasty were dissolved in 1898 with the arrival of French colonial rule.[15]
Slavery
The Senufo people were both victims of and perpetrators of slavery as they victimized other ethnic groups by enslavement.
The largest demand for slaves initially came from the markets of Sudan, and for a long time, slave trading was one an important economic activity across the Sahel and West Africa, states Martin Klein. Sikasso and Bobo-Dioulasso were important sources of slaves captured who were then moved to Timbuktu and Banamba on their way to the Sudanese and Mauritanian slave markets.[18]
Those enslaved in Senufo lands worked the land, herds and served within the home. Their owner and his dependents also had the right to have sexual intercourse with female domestic slaves. The children of a female slave inherited her slave status.[19]
Kong Empire
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Society and culture
The Senufo are predominantly an agricultural people cultivating corn, millet, yams, and peanut. Senufo villages consist of small mud-brick homes. In the rainy southern communities of Senufo, thatched roofs are common, while flat roofs are prevalent in dry desert-like north. The Senufo is a patriarchal extended family society, where arranged typically cousin marriage and polygyny has been fairly common, however, succession and property inheritance has been matrilineal.[8][11]
As agriculturalists, they cultivate a wide variety of crops, including cotton and cash crops for the international market. As musicians, they are world renowned, playing a multitude of instruments from: wind instruments (
Regionally, the Senufo are famous as musicians and superb carvers of wood sculpture, masks, and figurines.[11] The Senufo people have specialized their art and handicraft work by subgroups, wherein the art is learnt within this group, passed from one generation to the next. The Kulubele specialize as woodcarvers, the Fonombele specialize in blacksmith and basketry work, the Kpeembele specialize in brass casting, the Djelebele are renowned for leatherwork, the Tchedumbele are masters of gunsmith work, while Numu specialize in smithing and weaving.[4] Outside the artisan subgroups, the Senufo people have hunters, musicians, grave-diggers, diviners, and healers who are called the Fejembele.[4] Among these various subgroups, the leatherworkers or Djelebele are the ones who have most adopted Islam, although those who convert retain many of their animist practices.[4]
Traditionally, the Senufo people have been a socially stratified society, similar to many West African ethnic groups having castes.[22][23] These endogamous divisions are locally called Katioula, and one of the strata in this division includes slaves and descendants of slaves.[8] According to Dolores Richter, the caste systems in Africa found among Senufo people features "hierarchical ranking including despised lower castes, occupational specificity, ritual complementarity, endogamy, hereditary membership, residential isolation, and the political superiority of farmers over artisan castes".[4]
The Senufo people usually fall within four societies in their culture: Poro, Sandogo, Wambele, or Tyekpa. While all the societies fill particular roles in the governance and education of the Senufo people, the Poro and Sandogo.[20] Spirituality and divination are divided between these two gender-imperative societies with women falling under the Sando or Sandogo society, and men falling under the Poro society with the exception of men who are members of those of the women because of their mother.[9] These societies are the two that create the majority of commissioned Seunfo art.[24]
Typically, the Senufo villages are independent of each other, and each has a male secret society called Poro with elaborate initiation rituals in a patch of forest they consider as sacred. "The main function of Poro is to guarantee a good relationship between the living world and the ancestors. Nerejao is an ancestress who is recognized as the true head of the Poro society. Divination, which is governed by the Sandogo society, is also an important part of Senufo religion. Although Sandogo is usually considered a women's society, men who are called to the profession and inherit through the matrilineal line are permitted to become diviners."[20]
The Sandogo are women diviners among the Senufo people. They have their own rituals and secret order.[25][26] In addition, the Senufo people have Wambele and Typka, who perform sorcery and rituals.[8]
Within Senufo culture, the female form is held above all others in terms of beauty and aesthetics and caryatid figures are seen with various cultural connotations.[24] This is tied into the worship of the spirit, "Ancient Mother", or the spirit, "mother", Maleeo, who is revered as the guiding entity by all Poro society initiates and members.[24][27] The goddess Maleeo has a partner, the god Kolocolo, who is seen as the identifying deity of the Sandogo, who granted the people marriage and this particular type of lineage to allow communication from humanity and the spirit world.[20] Caryatid figures are seen as representations of the role of women as spiritual mediators and the Sandogo use them in ceremonies as symbols of this bilateral celestial discourse.[24] Likewise, in the case of the Poro, there are writings about caryatid figures being used in ceremonies where they are brought out to commemorate advancement in the age-grade cycle,[24] as well as being used to raise funds by initiates of the society. Calved figures were used in a tyekpa funeral ceremony as dance sculpture, held upon the head of the dancers while the ceremony takes place.[24]
The traditional Senufo religion is a type of animism. This Senufo belief includes ancestral and nature spirits, who may be contacted. They believe in a Supreme Being, who is viewed in a dual female-male: an Ancient Mother, Maleeo or Katieleo, and a male Creator God, Kolotyolo or Koulotiolo.[8]
Influence
The art of Senufo people inspired twentieth-century European artists such as Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger.[28][29][30] The cubism and masks found in Senufo pieces were a significant influence for Pablo Picasso's African period.[31]
The term Senufo has become a category to art collectors and scholars, a symbolism for the artistic traditions of West Africa, starting with the early twentieth century. Old pieces of Senufo art are found in many leading museums of the world.[32]
Cornélius Yao Azaglo August, a photographer, created a photographical journal of Senufo people from 1955 onward.[33]
See also
- Ceremonial Drum of the Senufo People
- French colonial empire
- Islam in Africa
- Traditional African religion
- Korhogo Cloth
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-313-27918-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8108-7389-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8108-6402-3.
- ^ S2CID 146454269.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-135-96334-7.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4766-2003-9.
- ^ Garber (1987) estimates the total number of Senufos at some 1.5 million; the Ethnologue (15th edition), based on various population estimates, counts 2.7 million.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-59884-363-7.
- ^ a b "Senufo Sculpture from West Africa: an influential exhibition at The Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1963 Essay - Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History". The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ^ "Senufo people". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2016-03-03.
- ^ a b c d Senufo people, Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ Language characteristics: Sénoufo, Cebaara in Ivory Coast, Sénoufo, Mamara in Mali, 15 sub-languages within Senufo
- ^ "Sister Wendy's American Collection". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ISBN 978-0-7614-4854-9.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8108-6402-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-139-50277-1.
- ISBN 978-0-521-59678-7.
- ISBN 978-0-521-59678-7.
- ISBN 978-0-8214-1723-2.
- ^ a b c d e "Senufo - Art & Life in Africa - The University of Iowa Museum of Art". africa.uima.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ^ "Creativity Resource for Teachers » Blog Archive » Drums of Africa". creativity.denverartmuseum.org. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ISBN 978-2-86537-106-8.
- S2CID 162509491., Quote: "[Castes] are found among the Soninke, the various Manding-speaking populations, the Wolof, Tukulor, Senufo, Minianka, Dogon, Songhay, and most Fulani, Moorish and Tuareg populations".
- ^ JSTOR 4108736.
- ISBN 978-0-520-03843-1.
- ISBN 978-0-8264-3655-9.
- ^ image of deity from Cleveland Museum collection now available on line
- ISBN 978-0-520-24361-3.
- ISBN 978-0-19-516164-9.
- ISBN 978-0-674-70490-9.
- ^ Senufo African art that inspired Picasso comes to France, RFI (2015); Senufo: Art and Identity in West Africa, Cleveland Museum of Art (2015), Quote: "Some of the most beloved artistic creations of sub-Saharan Africa, masks, figures, and decorative art labeled as Senufo have been the subject of numerous studies by African, American, and European scholars since the 1930s. The interest in sculpture identified as Senufo was largely stimulated by its discovery by the artistic avant-garde in the early twentieth century. Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger were among those to find inspiration in the oeuvre of their West African counterparts."
- ^ Senufo Sculpture from West Africa: An Influential Exhibition at The Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1963, Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi (2010), Art History Department, Emory University
- ISBN 978-0-8108-7389-6.
Bibliography
- Holas, Bohumil (1957) Les Sénoufo (y compris les Minianka), Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
- Spindel, Carol (1989). In the Shadow of the Sacred Grove. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-679-72214-4.
- Glaze, Anita J. (1981) Art and Death in a Senufo Village. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
External links
- The Senufo people at Art&Life in Africa.
- Centre Senoufo Mali.
- 'About the Senoufo People', Masabo Culture Company.
- The Sejen bird figures of the Senufo People, Ivory Coast
- For spirits and kings: African art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman collection, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on the Senufo people