Bariba people - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Bariba people, self designation Baatonu (plural Baatombu), are the principal inhabitants of Borgou Department

Borgou Department

Borgou is one of the twelve departments of Benin. Borgou borders the country of Nigeria and the departments of Alibori, Atakora, Collines and Donga. The capital of Borgou is Parakou and the total area is 25,310 km.² or 9,772 mi.²....

, Benin

Benin

Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...

, and cofounders of the Borgu kingdom

Borgu

Borgu was a 15th-16th century state in West Africa, partitioned between the Great Britain and France by the Anglo-French Convention of 1898. It lies in what is now Nigeria and the Republic of Benin.People of Borgu were known as Bariba and Borgawa....

of what is now northeast Benin and northwest Nigeria. There are perhaps a million Bariba, 80% of them in Benin, where they are the fourth largest ethnic group in Benin and comprise approximately 1/12 of the population. The Bariba are concentrated primarily in the north-east of the country, especially around the city of Nikki

Nikki, Benin

Nikki is a city, arrondissement, and commune located in the Borgou Department of Benin. The commune covers an area of 3171 square kilometres and as of 2002 had a population of 99,251 people.-References:...

, which is considered the Bariba capital. They originally migrated from Kwara state Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

and were renowned horsmen. One of their noted festivals is the annual Gani festival which horseriding is very much a part of and is engrained in their culture.

The Bariba people holds an important place in the history of the country. During the late 19th century, Baribawas known to constitute independent statesand dominate with kingdomsin cities like Nikki

Nikki, Benin

and Kandi

Kandi

Kandi is a town, arrondissement and commune in the Alibori Department of eastern Benin. Originally a market town, Kandi is now primarily a farming centre. It lies on the nation's main north-south highway, 650 km from Cotonou and 325 miles north of Porto-Novo. The town is the capital of...

in the northeast of the country. In the town of Pehunko there are approximately 200,000 Bariba people out of 365,000 inhabitants.

The Bariba society consists of a higher-ranking official as chief of the town and their subordinates’ chiefs. Social status and titles are inherited in families, but the status of a person may be given by the families’ nature of work. Notable subdivisions of the Bariba include the ruling Wasangari nobles, Baatombu commoners, slaves of varying origin, Dendi merchants, Fulbe herders, and other divisional ethnic groups.

Agriculture is the dominant occupation for the Bariba. They grow corn

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

, sorghum

Sorghum

Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...

, rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

, cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

, cassava

Cassava

Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...

(tapioca), yam

Yam (vegetable)

Yam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea . These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania...

s, bean

Bean

Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed....

s, palm oil

Palm oil

Palm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil are edible plant oils derived from the fruits of palm trees. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis; palm kernel oil is derived from the kernel of the oil palm and coconut oil is derived from the kernel of the...

, peanut

Peanut

The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume or "bean" family , so it is not a nut. The peanut was probably first cultivated in the valleys of Peru. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing tall...

s and some poultry and livestock. Religion plays an important role in Bariba tribes and they are primarily Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic. The religion was introduced to Bariba people by Dendi traders who were preaching in the north. However a number of Bariba communities have their own indigenous beliefs.

Language

The Bariba language is spoken mostly in Borgou, Alibori and part of Atacora in northern Benin. The Bariba language was once classified as an outlier of the Gur family

Gur languages

The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 70 languages belonging to this group. They are spoken in Burkina Faso, southern Mali, northeastern Côte d'Ivoire, northern Ghana, northern Togo, northwestern Benin, and southwestern Niger.Like most...

, but is now agnostically placed as an isolate within the Savanna languages

Savanna languages

-External links:* – Blench* by Michael & Charlene Ayotte, 2002. SIL Electronic Survey Reports SILESR 2002-048.* , Tourneaux...

.
It is a tone language with noun class

Noun class

In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its referent, such as sex, animacy, shape, but counting a given noun among nouns of such or another class is often clearly conventional...

es. It has been written since about 1970. Transcription using the Beninese national alphabet requires, in addition to the Latin letters, the following characters from the IPA:

ɔ "open o"

ɛ "open e"

the nasal vowel

Nasal vowel

A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation...

s [ã ɛ̃ ɔ̃ ĩ ũ].

Language

See also