Bobo people

The Bobo are an ethnic group living in Burkina Faso although the area occupied by the Bobo extends north into Mali. Bobo is also the name of the second biggest city in Burkina Faso. In much of the literature on African art the group that lives in the area of Bobo-Dioulasso is called Bobo-Fing, literally 'black Bobo.' These people call themselves Bobo and they speak the Bobo language, a Mande language. The Bamana (Bambara) people also call another ethnic group "Bobo," the Bobo-Oule/Wule, more precisely called the Bwa. While the Bwa (Bobo-Oule) are a Gur people, speaking Gur languages, the true Bobo (Bobo Madare, Bobo Fing), the topic of this article, are a Mande people. The Bobo number about 110,000 people, with the great majority in Burkina Faso. The major Bobo community in the south is Bobo-Dioulasso, the second city of Burkina Faso and the old French colonial capital. Farther north are large towns, including Fo () and Kouka, with Boura in the extreme north in Mali. The Bobo are far from homogeneous. They are an ancient aggregation of several peoples who have assembled around a number of core clans that do not preserve any oral traditions of immigration into the area. Their language and culture are more closely related to those of their Mandé neighbors to the north and west, the Bamana (as well as the Minianka, also known as Mamara Senoufo, and a Gur people) than to their Voltaic neighbors the Gurunsi and Mossi, but they should be thought of as a southern extension of the Mandé people who live in what is now Burkina Faso, rather than an intrusive Mandé group that has recently penetrated the region. Although over 41% of Bobo lineages claim a foreign origin, they also say that they are autochthonous.

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