The Mossi language is Moré. It belongs to the Gur group within the Niger-Congo language family. Like many African languages, Moré uses pitch (how high or low a tone is) to distinguish meanings. Also, as in other African languages, a verb form shows whether its action is continuing or happens only once. A persons name shows something about his or her birth. As with many other West African peoples, there are Mossi names showing the day of the week when a person was born.Arzuma(for a boy) orZuma(for a girl) means that a child was born on Friday;Hadowas born on Sunday andLarbaon Wednesday.Lokreis a name for someone born at the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan;Kibsais the name for one born during the festival of Tabaski, forty days after Ramadan. 4 • FOLKLORE There have been few written records in Mossi society. Special singers, calledgriots,were the keepers of oral traditions. The entire society used folktales and proverbs to pass on wisdom and experience to later generations. The Mossis account of their founding is handed down through the following myth: Over forty generations ago, a king named Naba Nedega had a daughter whom he would not allow to marry because she was a great warrior. So Princess Nyennega took a horse and fled north into what is now Mossi country. She married a local man. Their son, namedOuedraogo(stallion), was sent back to his mothers homeland to be raised by his grandfather, Naba Nedega. When he grew up, he returned to the north with cavalry from his homeland and conquered his fathers people, the Bisa. The marriage of Ouedraogo and his troops with Bisa women produced the Mossi people. A statue of Princess Nyennega on horseback in the city of Ouagadougoucommemorates the story. 5 • RELIGION The religion of the Mossi has three main components. There is a belief in an all-powerful creator,Wende; fertility spirits of the rain and the earth, which govern the soil and crops; and ancestors, who affect the lives of their descendants. The fertility spirits are usually worshiped through animal sacrifices such as chickens or guinea fowl, which are held in sacred places. The ancestors watch over their descendants, punishing or rewarding them for their behavior. The yearly cycle of ceremonies is mainly about ancestors. Each household has a shrine to its ancestors, an upside-down pottery bowl with sacred plants and objects under it. This shrine is honored once a year, at the time of the harvest festival. Sacrifices and offerings are made to it and to the graves of male ancestors
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 23:58:22 +0000
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