Bariba people

The Bariba, proper name Baatonu (plural Baatombu ), are the main people of the department Bourgou in Benin and were the founders of the kingdom Borgu, which today is located in North-East and North-West Benin Nigeria. Her mother tongue is the Bariba.

There are a total of one million Bariba, 80% in Benin, where they form the fourth largest ethnic group and 1/12 of the population. Bariba are mainly concentrated in the northeast of the country, particularly around the city of Nikki, which is considered the Bariba capital. They migrated originally from the State Kwara in Nigeria today and were highly prized horse breeder. One of their most famous annual festival is the Gani Festival, where the horse riding makes up the main part of the festival and is considered as an integral part of the Bariba culture.

The people of the Bariba stops an important place in the country's history: During the late 19th century, the Bariba already had several independent states dominated gegründetund with kingdoms in cities like Nikki and Kandi the northeast of the country. In the city of Pehunko there are still about 200,000 Bariba of about 365,000 inhabitants.

The Bariba Society consists of a high-ranking official as the chief of the city and its subordinate chiefs. Social status and title are passed on through the family, but the status of the person can also be given by the family nature of the work. Notable subdivisions of Bariba are the reigning Wasangari - nobles, bourgeois Baatombu, slaves of different origin, Dendi merchants, Fulbe stove guardians and other divisional ethnicities.

Agriculture is the dominant source of income for the Bariba. They build mainly maize, sorghum, rice, cotton, cassava ( tapioca ), yams, beans, palm oil and peanuts, other breeding poultry and livestock on. Religion plays an important role in the Bariba groups, they turn lately increasingly to Islam while in the past - were their traditional West African religion predominantly trailer - until the 1980s. Islam was introduced in the Bariba of Dendi merchants, who came from the north. Last Bariba communities have retained their indigenous religion.