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Peoples of Lower Guinea

The Soussou

The Soussou (Sosso or Susu) speak a language that is almost indistinguishable from that of the Dialonké in Middle Guinea. This close linguistic relationship supports a hypothesis that the Soussou and the Dialonké were once members of the same group in the Fouta Djallon, that they were separated by Peul invaders, and that the Soussou moved southward, absorbing other people in the process.

The economic and political preeminence of Lower Guinea in general and Conakry in particular gives the Soussou a special importance apart from their numerical size. Throughout Lower Guinea they have tended to assimilate other small groups. Soussou culture has supplanted some traditional features of the social system of other groups, such as the matrilineal organization of the Landouma and the land tenure system of the Nalou. Soussou is the lingua franca of Lower Guinea, and almost everyone speaks it either as a first language or in addition to his or her mother tongue.

The Soussou are primarily cultivators and traders who dominate the commerce between the coast and the interior. Those on the coast are fishermen who also rely heavily on coconut palms and oil palms for their livelihood.

The Baga

The Baga, largest of the minor groups in Lower Guinea, live scattered along the coast from Conakry and the Camayenne Peninsula to the Rio Nunez estuary, a distance of about 160 miles. Most of them are cultivators and fishermen. Although most Baga remember their history no further back than to the founder of their village, they were reported by sixteenth-century Portuguese explorers to be living in that area. A tradition survives among them that they originally inhabited the western part of the Fouta Djallon, from where they were driven out first by the Dialonké and later by the Peul.

Northwest of Boffa in the coastal swamps around Monchon live the Baga Fore (Soussou for black Baga, meaning possibly pagan Baga), who are mostly rice cultivators. They seem to have been among the earliest Baga to reach the coast and have been strongly influenced by their more powerful Nalou neighbors. Their language is related more closely to that of the Nalou than to that of other Baga.

The Baga are under pressure from the expanding Soussou. Young men often went to work in the towns, marry girls from other ethnic groups, give up their local religion, adopt Islam, and begin referring to themselves as Soussou. They were a good example of a small ethnic group melting easily into a larger one.

The Nalou

The Nalou live on the lower Rio Nunez and Kogan River and on the Tristão Islands. Like the Baga they are said to have come originally from the Fouta Djallon. The Nalou are cultivators and artisans. Among the latter group, blacksmiths are the most important. As they were not involved in the early conflicts with Peul nomads, some stayed in the Fouta Djallon and are considered the ancestors of the still-existing caste of blacksmiths in Peul society. Others, who had become serfs of Peul masters, left them and went south or west when domestic slavery was outlawed in 1905.

The Landouma, the Tyapi, and the Mikhiforé

The Landouma (Landoma) are closely related to the Baga and speak a dialect of the same language. They live inland from the Nalou between the Rio Nunez and the estuary of the Fatala River and west of Gaoual, along the Guinea-Bissau border.

Some groups in the Gaoual Administrative Region are called Tyapi (Tiapi), although they refer to themselves as Cocoli. They belong to the least studied people of Guinea. They speak the same language as the Landouma and consider themselves related to them. Portuguese explorers mentioned them as being in the Guinea-Bissau area as early as the fifteenth century. According to their tradition, they came orginally from the Fouta Djallon. Between the Landouma and the Baga live the Mikhiforé. They are a small Mandé-speaking group related linguistically to the Malinké in Upper Guinea.

The Mmani

The Mmani (sing., Manil; the Soussou call them Mandenyi) live between the Kolente (Great Scarcies in Sierra Leone) and Forécariah coconut palms, fishing, and salt extraction are important subsidiary activities. The Mmani seem to have been latecomers to the coastal area. Several Mmani place names are apparently of Baga origin. Their language is dying out and is being replaced by Soussou in many villages.