Bambara

Chiwara headdress

Bambara, ethnolinguistic group of the upper Niger region of Mali whose language, Bambara (Bamana), belongs to the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Bambara are to a great extent intermingled with other tribes, and there is no centralized organization. Each small district, made up of a number of villages, is under a dominant family that provides a chief, or fama. The fama has considerable powers but must defer to a council of elders.

The Bambara, like other West African peoples, use the distinctive N’ko alphabet, which reads from right to left. They have a remarkable system of metaphysics and cosmology, encompassing associated animistic cults, prayers, and myths. Their religious sculptures in wood and metal are renowned.

Economic changes in the mid-20th century included the introduction of such cash crops as peanuts (groundnuts), rice, and cotton into the pattern of subsistence agriculture. Many people migrated to the region’s towns.