Senufo

Willie Cannon-Brown

The Senufo are made up of a number of diverse groups who have lived in Northern Côte d'Ivoire and Mali since the 15th and 16th centuries. Their neighbors are the Curo, Yaure, Baule, Malinke, Bamana, Bobo, Lobi, Kulango, and Toussiana. Among the people of the Sahel region, the belt between the Sahara and the Forest, the Senufo have established a reputation for art, tradition, and customs that elevate their ancestral spirits. Because religious practices express the cosmology of the African world, it is demonstrated nowhere any better than in the Senufo society. The cultural practices of the Senufo people are reflective of their cosmological beliefs. The Senufo believe that the first two celestial beings were Maleeo, Ancient Mother, and Kolotyole (Kolotyöö), Creator God. When Kolotyöö created the first male and female, they became man and wife. The first two offspring of this first pair were male and female twins. The ...

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