© I. Fornasiero
The only reliefs on Senegalese soil are to be found in the south-east of the country, towards the Guinean border, as a prelude to the Fouta-Djalon massif, which reaches its highest peaks once it crosses the border. Here, not far from the area of Senegal’s main national park, the Niokolo-Koba, minority populations live, perched on the slopes of a few hills and cliffs that shape the morphology.
The historical isolation of the Bassari and Bedik peoples has contributed over the centuries to preserving their identity, language (tent), ancestral customs and traditions, in a continuous resilience undermined by Islamisation, tribal wars, the European slave trade and finally French colonisation.
Perched on small hills and cliffs, they migrated there around the 11th century, under pressure from the Ghanaian and Malian empires. They represent just 2% of Senegal’s population and even today their traditional villages made of clay and pointed thatched roofs can only be reached on foot. If anyone has converted over the years to Islam, they have done so under the influence of some charismatic leader, or to Christianity, in order to access the education offered by European religious missions. However, they were never subject to forced mass conversions. Particularly characteristic are their initiation rites for the passage from childhood to adulthood, or their propitiatory rites linked to the cyclical nature of the agricultural harvest and the rains.
The young initiates of the Bassari are trained in the secrets of the male universe and confronted in tests of courage and physical strength with the Loukuta cave spirits, represented by huge disc-shaped masks made of raffia and clay.
The Bedik cosmogony and the secrets of the initiations are guarded by the spirits of the sacred forest and the elements used to make the masks are entirely of vegetable origin, manufactured expressly for each event. Women must never have access to the secrets of the male universe, and vice versa, men can never know the secrets of female initiations.
