Kassena

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Landscape south of Tiébélé in southern Burkina Faso. You can see the fields with millet near the houses. Image taken during the summer rainy season, July 2001.

The Kassena (also Kasena ) are an ethnic group that settled in the border area between Burkina Faso and Ghana . Their number is given as around 250,000, of which around 130,000 live in Ghana and 120,000 in Burkina Faso.

The term Gurunsi for the Kassena and their linguistically related neighbors is not used today because, despite their close linguistic relationship, there are considerable cultural differences between the individual groups. In addition, Gurunsi is not a term used by the so-called people themselves; it has an exclusive function in the languages ​​of the neighboring peoples. For the language group to which the Kasem der Kassena belongs, Gurunsi languages (also Grusi languages ) are still spoken.

The approximately 130,000 Kassena in central northern Ghana live in the Kassena-Nankana District around the city of Navrongo and the towns of Wuru , Paga and Kwunchogaw on the border with Burkina Faso. The Kassena who live there settle in the province of Nahouri, which is part of the Center-Sud region, with the centers of Pô and Tiébélé .

There are contradicting versions of the origins of the kassena. It is believed, however, that the Kassena were among the original inhabitants of the area and that they took over the ruling system of the bosses from the later invading Mossi . In the second half of the 19th century numerous villages were destroyed by the Zarma .

The Kassena are known for the wall paintings made of colored clay sludge and white lime in geometric patterns, with which the women decorate the outer walls of the clay buildings. The architecture of the Kassena also inspired Le Corbusier . Because of their preference for agriculture, which, unlike other ethnic groups in Burkina Faso, they cultivate terraces , the Kassena hardly practice any manual work. Therefore, immigrants with skills as blacksmiths were welcome. For a limited time they settled down in the vicinity of the bosses.

Well-known Kassena

literature

  • Hans Peter Hahn: Terrace cultivation at the Ost-Kassena in Burkina Faso: On the technology blindness of development cooperation. In: Sociologus, New Series, Vol. 47, No. 1, 1997, pp. 1-23
  • Hans Peter Hahn: On the history of the settlement of the Kassena: oral traditions and locality . In: Journal of Ethnology . Volume 125, 2000, pp. 241-263
  • Hans Peter Hahn: A propos d'une histoire régionale des Kassena au Burkina Faso . In: Yénouyaba Georges Madiéga and Oumarou Nao: Burkina Faso. Cent ans d'histoire, 1895–1995 . Karthala, Paris 2003

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kasem. A language of Burkina Faso. ethnologue.com
  2. ↑ Hahn 2003, pp. 1432f.