The Bambara (Bambara: Bamana or Banmana) are ancient artistic, agriculturalist and Mandé-speaking people living in west Africa, primarily in Mali but also in Guinea, Burkina Faso and Senegal. They are considered to be amongst the largest Mandé ethnic groups, and are the dominant Mandé group in Mali, with 80% of the population speaking the Bambara language, regardless of ethnicity. Across the border in Mauritania, there are about 2000 Bambara living near the town of Timbedra. The Bambara live in the middle valley of the Niger River. The Bambara people are the famous ancient people that formed the great pre-colonial Bamana kingdom and short-lived Kaarta Kingdom.
Bambara people speak Bambara, also known as Bamana, and Bamanankan. It is a mande language that belong to the larger Niger-Congo family.
This language spoken in Mali, and to a lesser extent Burkina Faso and Senegal, by as many as six million people (including second language users). The Bambara language is the language of people of the Bambara ethnic group, numbering about 4,000,000 people, but serves also as a lingua franca in Mali (it is estimated that about 80 percent of the population speak it as a first or second language). It is a Subject–object–verb language and has two tones.
t uses seven vowels a, e, ɛ, i, o, ɔ and u (the letters approximate their IPA equivalents). Writing was introduced during the French occupation and literacy is limited, especially in rural areas. Although written literature is only slowly evolving (due to the predominance of French as the "language of the educated"), there exists a wealth of oral literature, which is often tales of kings and heroes. This oral literature is mainly tradited by the "Griots" (Jɛliw in Bambara) who are a mixture of storytellers, praise singers and human history books who have studied the trade of singing and reciting for many years. Many of their songs are very old and are said to date back to the old kingdom of Mali.
The main sub-dialect is standard Bamara, which has significant influence from Western Maninkakan. Bambara has many local dialects.
Some dialect variants: Somono, Segou, San, Beledugu, Ganadugu, Wasulu and Sikasso.
Since the 1970s Bambara has mostly been written in the Latin script, using some additional phonetic characters. The vowels are a, e, ɛ (formerly è), i, o, ɔ (formerly ò), u; accents can be used to indicate tonality. The former digraph ny is now written ɲ or ñ (Senegal). The ambiguous digraph "ng" represented both the [ŋɡ] sound of English "finger" and the [ŋ] sound of "singer". The 1966 Bamako spelling conventions render the latter sound as "ŋ".
The N'Ko (ߒߞߏ) alphabet is a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949 as a writing system for the Manding languages of West Africa; N’Ko means 'I say' in all Manding languages. Kante created N’Ko in response to what he felt were beliefs that Africans were a "cultureless people" since prior to this time there had been no indigenous African writing system for his language. N'ko came first into use in Kankan, Guinea as a Maninka alphabet and disseminated from there into other Manding-speaking parts of West Africa. N'ko and the Arabic script are still in use for Bambara, although the Latin script is much more common.
The Bamana originated as a section of the Mandinka people, the founders of the Mali Empire in the 13th Century. Both a part of the Mandé ethnic group, whose earliest known history can be traced back to sites near Tichitt (now subsumed by the Sahara in southern Mauritania), where urban centers began to emerge by as early as 2500 BC. By 250 BC a Mandé subgroup, the Bozo, founded the city of Djenne. Between 300 AD and 1100 AD the Soninke Mandé dominated the Western Sudan, leading the Ghana Empire.
When the Mandé Songhai Empire dissolved after 1600 AD, many Mandé speaking groups along the upper Niger river bassin turned inward. The Bamana appeared in this milieu with the rise of the Bamana Empire in the 1740s.
While there is little consensus among modern historians and ethnologists as to the origins or meaning of the ethno-linguistic term, references to Bambara can be found from the early 18th century. In addition to its general use as a reference to an ethno-linguistic group, Bambara was also used to identify captive Africans who originated in the interior of Africa perhaps from the upper Senegal-Niger region and transported to the Americas via ports on the Senegambian coast. As early as 1730 at the slave-trading post of Gorée, the term Bambara referred simply to slaves who were already in the service of the local elites or French.
ANCIENT BAMANA KINGDOM
The Bamana Empire (also Bambara Empire or Ségou Empire) was a large West African state based at Ségou, now in Mali. It was ruled by the Kulubali or Coulibaly dynasty established circa 1640 by Kaladian Coulibaly also known as Fa Sine or Biton-si-u. The empire existed as a centralized state from 1712 to the 1861 invasion of Toucouleur conqueror El Hadj Umar Tall.
Bambara Man, 1853
P.-D. Boilat, Esquisses Sénégalaises.
P. Bertrand. Paris, 1853.
New York Public Library, Hathi Trust.
The Kulubali Dynasty
In around 1640, Fa Sine became the third Faama (Mande word for King) of a small kingdom of Bambara people in the city of Ségou in Mali. Though he made many successful conquests of neighboring tribes and kingdoms, he failed to set up a significant administrative framework, and the new kingdom disintegrated following his death (c. 1660).
Bambara Woman, 1853
P.-D. Boilat, Esquisses Sénégalaises.
P. Bertrand. Paris, 1853.
New York Public Library, Hathi Trust.
In the early 18th century, Mamari Kulubali (sometimes cited as Mamari Bitòn) settled in Ségou and joined an egalitarian youth organization known as a tòn. Mamari soon reorganized the tòn as a personal army, assumed the title of bitòn, and set about subduing rival chiefs. He established control over Ségou, making it the capital of a new Bambara Empire.
Fortifying the capital with Songhai techniques, Bitòn Kulubali built an army of several thousand men and a navy of war canoes to patrol the Niger. He then proceeded to launch successful assaults against his neighbors, the Fulani, the Soninke, and the Mossi. He also attacked Tomboctou, though he held the city only briefly. During this time he founded the city of Bla as an outpost and armory.
Economy and structure
The Bambara Empire was structured around traditional Bambara institutions, including the kòmò, a body to resolve theological concerns. The kòmò often consulted religious sculptures in their decisions, particularly the four state boliw, large altars designed to aid the acquisition of political power.
The economy of the Bambara Empire flourished through trade, especially that of the slaves captured in their many wars. The demand for slaves then led to further fighting, leaving the Bambara in a perpetual state of war with their neighbors.
Mungo Park, passing through the Bambara capital of Ségou two years after Diarra's 1795 death, recorded a testament to the Empire's prosperity:
The view of this extensive city, the numerous canoes on the river, the crowded population, and the cultivated state of the surrounding countryside, formed altogether a prospect of civilization and magnificence that I little expected to find in the bosom of Africa.
Jihad and fall
At the Battle of Noukouma in 1818, Bambara forces met and were defeated by Fula Muslim fighters rallied by the jihad of Cheikou Amadu (or Seku Amadu) of Massina. The Bambara Empire survived but was irreversibly weakened. Seku Amadu's forces decisively defeated the Bambara, taking Djenné and much of the territory around Mopti and forming into a Massina Empire. Timbuktu would fall as well in 1845.
The real end of the empire, however, came at the hands of El Hadj Umar Tall, a Toucouleur conqueror who swept across West Africa from Dinguiraye. Umar Tall's mujahideen readily defeated the Bambara, seizing Ségou itself on March 10, 1861, and declaring an end to the Bambara Empire (which effectively became part of the Toucouleur Empire).
Kaarta, or Ka'arta, was a short-lived Bambara kingdom in what is today the western half of Mali.
As Bitòn Coulibaly tightened his control over Ségou, capital of his newly-founded Bambara Empire, a faction of Ségou Bambara dissatisfied with his rule fled west. In 1753, they founded the kingdom of Kaarta on the homeland of the long-defunct Ghana Empire, taking Nioro du Sahel as their capital. The kingdom was destroyed as an independent force in 1854 by El Hadj Umar Tall's jihad across West Africa; Umar Tall seized Nioro, and put the Kaarta king (Fama) Mamady Kandian and his entire family to death.
In 1878 the French governor of Senegal Briere de l'Isle sent a French force against the Kaarta Toucouleur vassal state along the north bank of the Senegal River. Blocked by the colonial minister in Paris, he argued that they were a threat to the Senegalese Imamate of Futa Toro (then a French client state) with which the British were poised to interfere. The Ministry gave in and on 7 July 1878, a French force destroyed the Kaarta Toucouleur fort at Sabouciré, killing their leader, Almany Niamody. This portion of the Kaarta vassals were then incorporated into the Khasso Wolof protectorate kingdom.
French Colonel Louis Archinard later conquered the entire territory of the former Kaarta kingdom in 1890, which was formally annexed into French West Africa in 1904.
Effects of Colonialism and the World System
French imperial expanders colonized the Bambara society for the purposes of dominating agricultural lands and commercial routes through the Middle Niger. These colonizing powers effected the Bambara populations culturally and politically. The French intended to rule the Bambara people rigidly, taking over their “chief” positions. Along with their centralized ideals, the French attempted to establish a colonial administration that was centered in Paris. However, this inflexible system proved to be inefficient and ineffective; as a result, the colonies could no longer be viewed as a homogeneous empire, but rather as separate entities ruled with somewhat unrelated administrations (Djata).
The French also attempted to colonize the Bambara region of Mali by implementing educational systems in order to develop French influence and to propagate the French language. However, oftentimes Bambara refused to attend French-established schools; the Bambara were not easily influenced by French impositions (Djata 154-155). Another way that the Bambara culture was infringed upon was the attempts by missionaries to convert the Bambara religious advocated away from their religion and towards Islam. However, this was a extensive and difficult process that the Bambara resisted heavily. Ultimately, the Bambara created a state where their religious beliefs remained independent from administration. Bambara social and religious conditions were an important aspect of community (Djata 156-157).
One of the more influential changes that French colonialism made on Bambara society was through military. Colonizers hired Bambara soldier for their skills, and the soldiers were ultimately highly regarded as worthy fighters. Although these soldiers had no allegiance to the French cause, they played a large and successful role in the colonial army. The prestige of the Bambara solider was significantly diminished after colonizers implemented a draft. The military pay was subpar to the invested value in keeping sons at home for the agricultural field. As a result, a trend towards “stabilization of the familiy” was established and continued to grow. Recruitment was effectively viewed as yet another tax (Djata 160-171).
Bambara responses to colonialism included “resignation, resistance, and collaboration,” (Djata), a combination of various degrees of unsettlement. Opposition was prevalent, most of which stemmed from the taxes and censuses that the French colonizers implemented on the Bambara, which the Bambara interpreted as acts of intrusion. Bambara also resisted by choosing leaders that French administrators opposed, as well as holding campaigns against the colonizing forces.
“The Bamana could be identified in pre-colonial times in terms of language, religion, customs, historic traditions, and space. Each of these elements helped to create a cohesion despite migrations and the introduction of other populations. Person argues that Bamana identity has survived despite colonialism, not because of it, since the French wanted to replace their culture and their identity with French civilization. Nevertheless, their community value continued to be vibrant” (Djata 183).
Religion
The Bambara high god is conceived of as a grain from which three other divine "persons," and finally, the whole of creation, are born. Bambara theology and religion are complex. Deep religious speculations exist among the Bambara sages and are transmitted orally without codification.
The Bambara believe in one god, Bemba, or Ngala, who is the creator of all things and has, in a way, created himself as a quaternity. This quaternity consists of Bemba himself, Mousso Koroni Koundyé (or Nyale), Faro, and Ndomadyiri; the last three correspond to the four elements—air, fire, water, and earth. Before the creation Bemba was named Koni and was, in a sense, "thought" (miri ) dwelling in a void; he is also the "void" itself (lankolo ). Accordingly, he cannot be perceived by humans using their usual senses. His existence is manifested as a force: a whirlwind, thought, or vibration that contains the signs of all uncreated things.
Bemba realized the creation of the world in three stages, each corresponding to one of the three other divine beings. In the first stage, called dali folo ("creation of the beginning"), the naked earth is created. God is known as Pemba in this stage, and he manifests himself in the form of a grain, from which grows an acacia (Balanza ). This tree soon withers, falls to the ground, and decaalso
Death
For the funeral, the dead body has its head shaved and it has its outside whitewashed with a paste made of cowries and water. Seven days later, a feast is held in the persons honor. The clan mourns for forty days, at which time, the corpse is considered an ancestor.
Malian artists such as Oumou Sangaré, Rokia Traoré, Ali Farka Touré, Salif Keita, Habib Koité, and the blind couple Amadou & Mariam often sing in Bambara. Aïda of the band Métisse often sings in Dioula, as does Mory Kante, born in Guinea to a Malian mother; his most famous song to date is "Yeke Yeke" (Alpha Blondy). Lyrics in Bambara occur on Stevie Wonder's soundtrack Journey through the Secret Life of Plants. Tiken Jah Fakoly (reggae) often sings in Dioula and French.
Additionally, in 2010, Spanish rock group Dover released their 7th studio album I Ka Kené with the majority of lyrics in the language.