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55-463: Bambara is a variety of a group of closely related languages called Manding , whose native speakers trace their cultural history to the medieval Mali Empire . Varieties of Manding are generally considered (among native speakers) to be mutually intelligible – dependent on exposure or familiarity with dialects between speakers – and spoken by 9.1 million people in the countries Burkina Faso , Senegal , Guinea-Bissau , Guinea , Liberia , Ivory Coast and

110-684: A Grand Council of French West Africa was created in Dakar. Two representatives from each colony, usually the Lieutenant Governor and a representative of the French population there, were seated. This council had only consultative powers over the office of the Governor General. The functioning of such bodies rested upon the Indigénat legal code of 1885. Despite this state of flux, and with the exception of

165-468: A definitive series depicting colonial soldiers, both in 1945. A series of 1947 featured 19 scenes and people of the various colonies, then during the 1950s there were about 30 various commemoratives . The last issue inscribed "Afrique occidentale française" and "RF" was the Human Rights issue of December 1958. It was followed by a Stamp Day issue on 21 March 1959, which omitted the federation's name and

220-565: A "cultureless people" since prior to this time there had been no indigenous African writing system for his language. N'ko first gained a strong user base around the Maninka-speaking area of Kante's hometown of Kankan, Guinea and disseminated from there into other Manding-speaking parts of West Africa. N'ko and the Arabic script are still in use for Bambara, although only the Latin-based orthography

275-712: A deputy to represent them in the French parliament in 1848–1852, 1871–1876, and 1879–1940. In 1914, the first African, Blaise Diagne , was elected as the deputy for Senegal in the French Parliament. In 1916, Diagne pushed a law through the National Assembly (loi Blaise Diagne) granting full citizenship to all residents of the so-called Four Communes. In return, he promised to help recruit millions of Africans to fight in World War I. Thereafter, all black Africans of Dakar , Gorée , Saint-Louis , and Rufisque could vote to send

330-791: A little bit of Bambara I you tɛna AUX . NEG . FUT dumuni eating ke do wa? Q I tɛna dumuni ke wa? you AUX.NEG.FUT eating do Q Aren't you going to eat? Du Mara Dou Mara be still ameriki America hali in Manding languages The Manding languages (sometimes spelt Manden ) are a dialect continuum within the Niger-Congo family spoken in West Africa . Varieties of Manding are generally considered (among native speakers) to be mutually intelligible – dependent on exposure or familiarity with dialects between speakers – and spoken by 9.1 million people in

385-962: A million slaves in French West Africa fled from their masters to earlier homes. After the Fall of France in June 1940 and the two battles of Dakar against the Free French Forces in July and September 1940, authorities in West Africa declared allegiance to the Vichy regime , as did the colony of French Gabon in AEF. Gabon fell to Free France after the Battle of Gabon in November 1940, but West Africa remained under Vichy control until

440-473: A new generation of French-educated Africans. On 21 October 1945 six Africans were elected, the Four Communes citizens chose Lamine Guèye , Senegal/Mauritania Léopold Sédar Senghor , Ivory Coast/Upper Volta Félix Houphouët-Boigny , Dahomey/Togo Sourou-Migan Apithy , Soudan-Niger Fily Dabo Sissoko , and Guinea Yacine Diallo . They were all re-elected to the 2nd Constituent Assembly on 2 June 1946. In 1946,

495-543: A representative to the French National Assembly. As the French pursued their part in the scramble for Africa in the 1880s and 1890s, they conquered large inland areas, and at first, ruled them as either a part of the Senegal colony or as independent entities. These conquered areas were usually governed by French Army officers, and dubbed "military territories". In the late 1890s, the French government began to rein in

550-621: A strong oral tradition , but also have written forms: adaptations of the Arabic alphabet and the Latin alphabet and at least two indigenous scripts . French West Africa French West Africa ( French : Afrique-Occidentale française , AOF ) was a federation of eight French colonial territories in West Africa : Mauritania , Senegal , French Sudan (now Mali ), French Guinea (now Guinea ), Ivory Coast , Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso ), Dahomey (now Benin ) and Niger . The federation existed from 1895 until 1958. Its capital

605-518: A total number of 21 vowels (the letters approximate their IPA equivalents). Writing with the Latin alphabet began during the French colonization, and the first orthography was introduced in 1967. Literacy is limited, especially in rural areas. Although written literature is only slowly evolving (due to the predominance of French as the "language of the educated"), there exists a wealth of oral literature , which

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660-547: A union of Senegal, French Sudan , French Guinea and Ivory Coast only, the federation was placed on a permanent footing in 1904. A governor-general was based first in Saint-Louis , then (from 1902) in Dakar (both in Senegal, the oldest French settlement). The AOF subsequently expanded to neighbouring French-ruled territories: Dahomey was added in 1904, after having been put under colonial tutelage in 1892; Mauritania in 1920, and when

715-461: Is subject–object–verb (SOV). Take the phrase, n t'a lon (I don't know [it]). n is the subject (I), a is the object (it), and [ta] lon is the verb ([to] know). The t' is from the negative present tense marker té , bé being the affirmative present tense marker ( n b'a don would mean "I know it"). Like many SOV languages, Bambara uses postpositions rather than prepositions - their role being similar to English prepositions but placed after

770-484: Is Standard Bamara, which has significant influence from Maninkakan. Bambara has many local dialects: Kaarta, Tambacounda (west); Beledugu, Bananba, Mesekele (north); Jitumu, Jamaladugu, Segu (center); Cakadugu, Keleyadugu, Jalakadougu, Kurulamini, Banimɔncɛ, Cɛmala, Cɛndugu, Baninkɔ, Shɛndugu, Ganadugu (south); Kala, Kuruma, Saro, dialects to the northeast of Mopti (especially Bɔrɛ); Zegedugu, Bɛndugu, Bakɔkan, Jɔnka (southeast). Since 1967, Bambara has mostly been written in

825-406: Is formed by attaching a vocalic suffix -u , most often with a low tone (in the orthography, -w ) to nouns or adjectives. In urban areas, many Bamanankan conjunctions have been replaced in everyday use by French borrowings that often mark code-switches . The Bamako dialect makes use of sentences like: N taara Kita mais il n'y avait personne là-bas.  : I went to Kita [Bamanankan ] but there

880-671: Is officially recognized in Mali. Additionally, a script known as Masaba or Ma-sa-ba was developed for the language beginning in 1930 by Woyo Couloubayi ( c.  1910 -1982) of Assatiémala . Named for the first characters in Couloubayi's preferred collation order, Masaba is a syllabary which uses diacritics to indicate vowel qualities such as tone , length , and nasalization . Though not conclusively demonstrated to be related to other writing systems, Masaba appears to draw on traditional Bambara iconography and shares some similarities with

935-489: Is often tales of kings and heroes. This oral literature is mainly passed on by the griots ( Jeliw in Bambara) who are a mixture of storytellers , praise singers, and human history books who have studied the trade of singing and reciting for many years. Many of their songs are very old and are said to date back to the old empire of Mali. Each consonant represents a single sound with some exceptions: The basic sentence structure

990-435: Is part of the larger Mandé family of languages. The Manding languages, the differences from one another and relationships among them are matters that continue to be researched. In addition, the nomenclature is a mixture of indigenous terms and words applied by English and French speakers since before the colonisation of Africa , which makes the picture complex and even confusing. The Mandinka people speak varieties from

1045-558: Is particularly common when using French words which have a meaning not traditionally found in Mali. For example, the Bamanankan word for snow is niegei , based on the French word for snow neige . As there has never been snow in Mali, there was no unique word in Bamanankan to describe it. N I bɛ AUX . positive bamanankan Bambara mɛn hear dɔɔni-dɔɔni small-small N bɛ bamanankan mɛn dɔɔni-dɔɔni I AUX. positive Bambara hear small-small I understand/hear

1100-682: The Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942. Following World War II, the French government began a process of extending limited political rights in its colonies. In 1945 the French Provisional Government allocated ten seats to French West Africa in the new Constituent Assembly called to write a new French Constitution . Of these five would be elected by citizens (which only in the Four Communes could an African hope to win) and five by African subjects. The elections brought to prominence

1155-818: The French Army . World War II, and the passing of the Loi Cadre ( Overseas Reform Act of 1956 ), both radically restructured the administration of the colonies. French Togoland , seized by France from Germany in World War I, was for most of this period not nominally a colony but a Mandate territory . In theory, the Governors-General of the AOF reported directly to the Minister of Colonies in Paris, while individual colonies and territories reported only to Dakar. Originally created in 1895 as

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1210-606: The French Fifth Republic of 1958 again changed the structure of the colonies from the French Union to the French Community . Each territory was to become a "Protectorate", with the consultative assembly named a National Assembly. The Governor appointed by the French was renamed the "High Commissioner", and made head of state of each territory. The Assembly would name an African as Head of Government with advisory powers to

1265-466: The Latin script , using some additional phonetic characters from the Africa Alphabet . The vowels are a, e, ɛ (formerly è ) , i, o, ɔ (formerly ò ) , u ; accents can be used to indicate tonality. The former digraph ny is now written ɲ when it designates a palatal nasal; the ny spelling is kept for the combination of a nasal vowel with a subsequent oral palatal glide. Following

1320-1027: The Loi Lamine Guèye granted some limited citizenship rights to natives of the African colonies. The French Empire was renamed the French Union on 27 October 1946, when the new constitution of the Fourth Republic was established. In late 1946 under this new constitution, each territory was for the first time (excepting the Four Communes) able to elect local representatives, albeit on a limited franchise, to newly established General Councils. These elected bodies had only limited consultative powers, although they did approve local budgets. The Loi Cadre of 23 June 1956 brought universal suffrage to elections held after that date in all French African colonies. The first elections under universal suffrage in French West Africa were

1375-657: The Precepteur du marché trade inspectors, etc. Because of administrative practice and geographic isolation, Cercle Commanders had a tremendous amount of power over the lives of the Africans around them. The Cercle Commanders also had tremendous power over the economic and political life of their territories. Legally, all Africans outside the Four Communes of Senegal were "subjects" under the Indigénat legal code of 1885. This code gave summary powers to French administrators, including

1430-629: The Vai syllabary of Liberia and with Arabic-derived secret alphabets used in Hodh (now Hodh El Gharbi and Hodh Ech Chargui Regions of Mauritania ). As of 1978, Masaba was in limited use in several communities in Nioro Cercle for accounting, personal correspondence, and the recording of Muslim prayers; the script's current status and prevalence is unknown. It uses seven vowels a, e, ɛ, i, o, ɔ and u, each of which can be nasalized, pharyngealized and murmured, giving

1485-473: The 1966 Bamako spelling conventions, a velar nasal " ŋ " is written as " ŋ ", although in early publications it was often transcribed as ng or nk . The N'Ko ( N'Ko : ߒߞߏ ) alphabet is a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949 as a writing system for the Manding languages of West Africa; N’Ko means 'I say' in all Manding languages. Kante created N’Ko in response to what he felt were beliefs that Africans were

1540-638: The AOF in conjunction with officers of the French Colonial Forces . Each colony of French West Africa was administered by a Lieutenant Governor, responsible to the Governor General in Dakar. Only the Governor-General received orders from Paris, via the Minister of Colonies . The Minister, with the approval of the French Chamber of Deputies ( French National Assembly after 1946), chose Lieutenants Governor and Governors-General. Beginning in 1946,

1595-635: The French Community to unilaterally change their own constitutions. Senegal and former French Sudan became the Mali Federation (1960–61), while Ivory Coast, Niger, Upper Volta and Dahomey subsequently formed the short-lived Sahel-Benin Union , later the Conseil de l'Entente . The administrative structure of French colonial possessions in West Africa, while more homogeneous than neighboring British possessions ,

1650-406: The French authorities started to enforce anti-slavery laws against indigenous slave owners in territories under French control due to pressure from French abolitionists: the laws against slave trade were enforced, and fugitive slaves were not returned to their owners. In 1905, the French officially abolished slavery in most of French West Africa. From 1906 to 1911, as emancipation progressed, over

1705-569: The French found in the coastal areas of the Rivières du Sud colony in the 1880s, modern Guinea. The Canton, then, was much smaller than, and qualitatively different from, the pre-colonial states of the Sahel (such as the Toucouleur Empire ) which the French would later conquer. They were styled "Chefs de canton", "Chefs du Village", or occasionally taking the title of precolonial states assimilated by

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1760-423: The French structure whole. This last was uncommon, but became more prevalent in the later colonial territories conquered, as fewer administrators were available to rule over larger, less populated territories with strong pre-colonial state structures. Where these larger polities resisted the French, they were often broken into small chiefdoms. Larger polities which presented a segment of the elite who would work with

1815-499: The French were maintained under new leadership. The Sultan of Agadez , the Sultan of Damagaram , and the Djermakoy of Dosso are examples of these large scale "Chefs de canton". But even these rulers were replaced by individuals handpicked by French authorities. Regardless of source, chiefs were given the right to arm small numbers of guards and made responsible for the collection of taxes,

1870-469: The French word for yellow, they often use joni .) However, one could also say: I ka kulosi ye nɛrɛmukuman ye , also meaning "your skirt is yellow." The original Bamanankan word for yellow comes from " nɛrɛmuku ," being flour ( muku ) made from néré (locust bean), a seed from a long seed pod. Nɛrɛmuku is often used in sauces in Southern Mali. Most French loan words are suffixed with the sound 'i'; this

1925-610: The Gambia . Manding is part of the larger Mandé family of languages. Bambara is spoken throughout Mali as a lingua franca. The language is most widely spoken in the areas east, south, and north of Bamako, where native speakers and/or those that identify as members of the Bambara ethnic group are most densely populated. These regions are also usually considered to be the historical geographical origin of Bambara people, particularly Ségou , after diverging from other Manding groups. The main dialect

1980-581: The Head of State. Legally, the federation ceased to exist after the 1958 French constitutional referendum to approve this French Community. All the colonies except Guinea voted to remain in the new structure. Guineans voted overwhelmingly for independence. In 1960, a further revision of the French constitution, compelled by the failure of the French Indochina War and the tensions in Algeria , allowed members of

2035-682: The Military structure (outside Military areas, e.g.: modern Niger and Mauritania prior to the Second World War). Below the "Cercle Commander" were a series of African "Chefs de canton" and "Chefs du Village": "chiefs" appointed by the French and subject to removal by the Europeans. As well, the "Cercle Commander" made use of a large number of servants, employees, and African officers such as the "Gardes-de-cercle" police, any military units seconded to them by government authorities, and sub-administrators such as

2090-535: The Senegalese Communes, the administrative structure of French rule at the lower levels remained constant, based upon the Cercle system. This was the smallest unit of French political administration in French colonial Africa that was headed by a European officer. They might range in size, but French Sudan (modern Mali) consisted of less than a dozen Cercles for most of its existence. Thus, a Cercle Commander might be

2145-453: The absolute authority over hundreds of thousands of Africans. A Cercle consisted of several cantons , each of which in turn consisted of several villages, and was almost universal in France's African colonies from 1895 to 1946. The "Cercle Commander" (" commandant de cercle ") was subject to the authority of a District Commander, and the government of the colony above him, but was independent of

2200-475: The countries Burkina Faso , Senegal , Guinea-Bissau , Guinea , Sierra Leone , Mali , Liberia , Ivory Coast and The Gambia . Their best-known members are Mandinka or Mandingo , the principal language of The Gambia ; Bambara , the most widely spoken language in Mali ; Maninka or Malinké , a major language of Guinea and Mali ; and Jula , a trade language of Ivory Coast and western Burkina Faso . Manding

2255-880: The depths of the Sahara , the Federation contained more than ten million inhabitants at its creation, and some 25 million at its dissolution. The AOF included all of the Senegal River valley, most of the Niger River valley, and most of the West African Sahel region. It also included tropical forests in Ivory Coast and Guinea, the Fouta Djallon highlands, and the Aïr Mountains of modern Niger. The French colonial territories in

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2310-474: The federation issued their own postage stamps until 1943. In many cases the stamps were inscribed with the name of the federation " Afrique Occidentale Française " as well as the colony's own name. In 1943 and 1944, stamps of Senegal and Mauritania were overprinted with new values and valid throughout French West Africa. The first issues printed specifically for the federation were the Eboue common design type and

2365-404: The first two groups. The differences between the western and eastern branches manifest themselves primarily phonetically . While dialects of the western group usually have 10 vowels (5 oral and 5 long/ nasal ), the eastern group, typified by Bambara, has 14 vowels (7 oral and 7 nasal): In addition, Sininkere (Burkina Faso) is of an unclear placement within Manding. The Manding languages have

2420-626: The law, property ownership rights, rights to travel, dissent, or vote. The exception was the Four Communes of Senegal: those areas had been towns of the tiny Senegal Colony in 1848 when, at the abolition of slavery by the French Second Republic , all residents of France were granted equal political rights. Anyone able to prove they were born in these towns was legally French. They could vote in parliamentary elections, which had been previously dominated by white and mixed-race residents of Senegal. The Four Communes of Senegal were entitled to elect

2475-442: The municipal elections of late 1956. On 31 March 1957, under universal suffrage, territorial Assembly elections were held in each of the eight colonies (Togo as a UN trust Territory was at this stage on a different trajectory). The leaders of the winning parties were appointed to the newly instituted positions of Vice-Presidents of the respective Governing Councils — French Colonial Governors remained as Presidents. The Constitution of

2530-421: The noun. The language has two (mid/standard and high) tones ; e.g. sa 'die' vs. sá 'snake.' The typical argument structure of the language consists of a subject, followed by an aspectival auxiliary, followed by the direct object, and finally a transitive verb. Bambara does not inflect for gender. Gender for a noun can be specified by adding a suffix, -cɛ or -kɛ for male and -muso for female. The plural

2585-468: The recruitment of forced labour, and the enforcement of "customary law". In general, Canton Chiefs served at the behest of their Cercle Commander and were left to see to their own affairs as long as calm was maintained and Administrative orders were carried out. With an area of some 4,689,000 square kilometres (1,810,000 sq mi) (mostly the desert or semi-desert interior of Mauritania , Sudan and Niger ) extending from Africa's westernmost point to

2640-414: The restructuring of the people's lives he governed. The other official office particular to the local administration of French West Africa was the "Chief". These were Africans appointed by French officials for their loyalty to France, regardless of their rights to local power. These chiefs were assigned created territories based on the scale of a French Canton, as well as on the small scale tribal structures

2695-540: The rights to arrest, try, punish and imprison subjects. It also gave French local authorities the right to requisition forced labour, usually limited to able-bodied men for a few weeks a year, but in practice having few restrictions. These "tools" included the Civilizing mission ideology common in the period following the First World War. Every new Cercle Commander might well bring with him vast projects for development and

2750-495: The territorial expansion of its "officers on the ground", and transferred all the territories west of Gabon to a single governor based in Senegal, reporting directly to the Minister of Overseas Affairs. The first governor-general of Senegal was named in 1895, and in 1904, the territories he oversaw were formally named French West Africa (AOF). Gabon would later become the seat of its own federation French Equatorial Africa (AEF), which

2805-432: The territory of Upper Volta was divided from French Sudan by colonial decree in 1921, it automatically also entered the AOF. Between 1934 and 1937, the League of Nations Mandate territory of French Togoland was subsumed into Dahomey, and between its seizure from Germany in World War I and independence it was administered through the AOF. In 1904, both Mauritania and Niger were classed "Military Territories": ruled by

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2860-444: Was Saint-Louis in Senegal until 1902, and then Dakar until the federation's collapse in 1960. With an area of 4,689,000 km , French West Africa was eight times the size of Metropolitan France . French Equatorial Africa had an additional area of 2,500,000 km . Until after World War II, almost none of the Africans living in the colonies of France were citizens of France. Rather, they were "French subjects," lacking rights before

2915-438: Was marked by variety and flux. Throughout the history of the AOF, individual colonies and military territories were reorganized numerous times, as was the Government General in Dakar. French Upper Volta was formed and parceled out to neighboring colonies twice. The future states of Mauritania and Niger remained out of the federation until the 1920s and 1940s respectively. They were Military Territories , directly controlled by

2970-412: Was no one there [French]. The sentence in Bamanankan alone would be Ń taara Kita nka mɔkɔ si tun tɛ yen. The French proposition "est-ce que" is also used in Bamanankan ; however, it is pronounced more slowly and as three syllables, [ɛsikə] . Bamanankan uses many French loan words. For example, some people might say: I ka kurusi ye nere ye : "Your skirt is yellow" (using a derivation of jaune ,

3025-460: Was to border its western neighbor on the modern boundary between Niger and Chad . France abolished slavery in French West Africa. This process was gradual. Slavery was formally illegal in all French land including their colonies from 1848, but this law only applied to French citizens in territories officially under French law, which meant that indigenous subjects without French citizenship were not obliged to obey. In French West Africa in 1903-1905,

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