Bijagos

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The Bijagos or Bissagos , their own name Bijuga , alternative names : Bidjogo , Bijago, Bijao, Bijogo, Bijougot, Budjago, Bugago are a West African people of about 33,000 people who inhabit the Bissagos Archipelago off the coast of Guinea-Bissau . The term "Bissagos" is mainly used for the archipelago, "Bijagó" more in Portuguese literature, while "Bijogo" predominates in literature of other origins.

Map of the Bissagos Archipelago

language

The Bijagos speak an Atlantic language that is the only one of this language family to be assigned neither to the northern nor to the southern branch due to its isolated origin. This assignment has more geographic reasons, linguistically the language belongs to the Benue-Congo languages . Many Bijago also speak Creole and Portuguese .

Culture and economy

Bijago women

The localities of the Bijagos are located in the interior of the islands, as the coasts have always been endangered. All agricultural land is common property. Most of the people live on the islands of Bubaque , Bolama and Caravela . The Bijagos regard the uninhabited islands as sacred land and common property, which is why nobody is allowed to live there. However, the cultivation of the soil is permitted. They live in village communities in mud houses with thatched roofs and practice subsistence farming . Rice is grown in palm groves during the rainy season, and fishing is also very important. The Bijagos are the only people of Guinea-Bissau that originally followed a matriarchal social structure. The woman was the head of the family, she chose the man and could be married to two men at the same time. This traditional way of life still exists mainly on the island of Canhabaque . The Bijagos are the only ethnic group in Guinea-Bissau where children are not circumcised.

The Austrian ethnologist Hugo Bernatzik described the islanders in 1934 as “conservative, brave, reserved, completely honest, hardworking and polite people”. As the first European scientist, he explored the Bissagos Islands with the help of the pilot Elly Beinhorn .

religion

Even today, the animistic local religion with its initiation rites and holy places is the most important belief of the Bijagos. Despite a strong Christianization , today around 15% are Christians, the Bijagos have retained their creative cult with spirits in nature and inanimate objects. Figures are considered to be in the seat of deities. The figures serve as the central object of ceremonies, as household protectors against curses and as healers. They are placed in special places in the house and sacrifices are made to them. The Islamic influence is reflected more in the culture than in the practice of the specific religion.

history

Bijagos in front of a termite mound (around 1890)

The Bijagos were first mentioned by the Portuguese navigator Pedro da Cintra in 1456. Even before the time of the discoveries , the Bijagos had a central role in West African trade and maintained a strong fleet of large ocean-going canoes that could hold up to 70 men. This enabled them to prevent the Portuguese from conquering the islands in 1535 . In the middle of the 17th century, the clashes with the Portuguese weakened and a lively trade relationship began.

In the 16./17. In the 19th century, the Bijagos were successful as slave hunters and traders , but were sometimes abducted as slaves by the Portuguese themselves. As slaves, however, they were known for their rebellion. The British, Dutch, French and Spanish also frequently frequented the transshipment points for the slave trade. With the captured female slaves, women, according to European observers, soon did all the productive work of the people, since the men were almost exclusively engaged in slave hunting and trading. For European goods, the Bijagos were only interested in weapons, iron and brandy . The pirate raids of the Bijagos on the mainland coast declined from the 1630s, as forts were built there and counter-attacks were launched.

The Bijagos organized themselves on a decentralized basis with strong military local rulers who repeatedly raided the coast of the mainland without a common monarchy or state. While a divine royal dignity was inherited on Bubaque, Roxa and Orango Grande, chiefs were elected on the other populated islands. In addition, there were "secret chiefs", the priestesses. A British attempt at settlement at the end of the 18th century also failed because of their resistance. Isolated location and decentralized organization combined with shared religious beliefs enabled them to retain their independence and identity for a long time. Their warlike life and religious convictions made it easier to resist military and socio-cultural pressure from outside.

From 1870 onwards Portugal made increased efforts to bring the islands under its control, but it was not until the 1920s that the islands were "pacified" and in 1936 the last Bijagos uprising was crushed. All blacksmiths were killed as gun manufacturers. Then the islands were finally annexed to the colony of Portuguese Guinea . The colonial rulers set up a system of forced labor , which was particularly catastrophic for the unbound Bijagos. The Bissagos Archipelago became independent Guinea-Bissau together with Portuguese Guinea in 1973/74.

literature

  • Hugo Adolf Bernatzik : In the realm of the Bidjogo. Mysterious islands in West Africa. Ullstein, Berlin 1960.
  • Christine Henry: Grandeur et decadence des marins bijogo. In: Cahiers d'études africaines, 29 (1989), No. 114, pp. 193-207.
  • Brandon D. Lundy: Number 1 - Resistance is Fruitful: Bijagos of Guinea-Bissau. In: Peace and Conflict Management Working Papers Series, No. 1, Kennesaw State University, 2015, pp. 1–9
  • Alexandra O. de Sousa: Defunct Women. Possession among the Bijagós Islanders. In: Heike Behrend, Ute Luig (ed.): Spirit Possession. Modernity & Power in Africa. James Currey, Oxford 1999, pp. 81-88
  • Inge Tvedten: The difficult transition from subsitence to commercial fishing. The case of the Bijagòs of Guinea-Bissau . In: Center for maritime research (ed.): MAST . tape 3/1 , 1990, ISSN  0922-1476 , pp. 119–130 (English, digitized [PDF; 543 kB ]).

Web links

Commons : Bijagos  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History in Africa. A journal of method. African Studies Association, 24 (1997), p. 185.
  2. ↑ William André Auquier Wilson: Guinea Languages of the Atlantic Group. Description and internal classification. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-631-55170-7 ; and R. Blench: Archeology, language, and the African past. Rowman Altamira, Lanham 2006, ISBN 0-7591-0466-2 , p. 116; and Bidyogo. A language of Guinea-Bissau.
  3. ^ Initiation rites of the Bijago
  4. ↑ a b c d Brandon Lundy: Bijogo islanders. Speculations on forced migration and identity.
  5. ^ A b James S. Olson: The People of Africa. An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood Press, Westport 1996, ISBN 0-313-27918-7 , p. 96.
  6. ^ John Kelly Thornton: Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400-1800. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1998, ISBN 0-521-62217-4 , p. 39.
  7. ^ History in Africa. A journal of method. African Studies Association, 24 (1997), p. 181.
  8. ↑ Linda A. Newson, Susie Minchin (Eds.): From capture to sale. The Portuguese slave trade to Spanish South America in the early seventeenth century. Brill, Boston 2007, ISBN 90-04-15679-8 , pp. 50, 54f., 120 and 132.
  9. ↑ a b Toyin Falola , Amanda Warnock (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the middle passage. Greenwood milestones in African American history. Greenwood, Westport 2007, ISBN 0-313-33480-3 , pp. 60f.
  10. ^ John Kelly Thornton: Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400-1800. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1998, ISBN 0-521-62217-4 , p. 107.
  11. ^ Robert O. Collins (ed.): Problems in African history. The precolonial centuries Topics in world history. Markus Wiener Publishers, New York 1993, ISBN 1-55876-059-8 , pp. 191f.
  12. ↑ George E. Brooks: Eurafricans in western Africa. Commerce, social status, gender, and religious observance from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. James Currey Publishers, Athens / Ohio 2003, ISBN 0-85255-489-3 , p. 290.
  13. ↑ George E. Brooks: Eurafricans in western Africa. Commerce, social status, gender, and religious observance from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. James Currey Publishers, Athens / Ohio 2003, ISBN 0-85255-489-3 , p. 165.
  14. ↑ Ulrich Schiefer: Forsaken by all good spirits? Guinea-Bissau, Development Policy and the Collapse of African Societies. Institute for Africa Customers in the Association of the German Overseas Institute, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-928049-83-6 , p. 28.
  15. ^ Bijagós Archipelago