The Island Where Women Reign - Bijagos Island On the island of Orango Grande, in the Bijagos Archipelago, off the coast of Guinea Bissau, there is a matriarchal society where women possess all the power. They organize themselves into associations which manage the economy, social welfare and the law. Women impose and direct sanctions, advise and distribute goods, and they are respected as the absolute owners of both the house and the land. Women hold the supreme power of divorce in marriage. Men are turned to for the tilling of the fields, hunting and fishing. In the Bijago Matriarch. The woman is the final authority in her household. When she speaks men listen. The Bijagos islands is the only deltaic archipelago on the Atlantic coast of Africa and it comprises 80 islands and covers an area of nearly 10,000 km off the coast of Guinea Bissau.It is argued that the country`s name Bissau came from the corruption of the name Bissagos. Bijago have traditionally resented all centralized authority, whether Portuguese, French, English, German or contemporary government officials. In 1447, when the Portuguese explorer, Nuna Tristao, tried to conquer the Bijagos, they killed him instantly because they do not want any form of rule except their matriarchal traditional system that create chiefs to rule them. The Bijagos rose up in rebellion against the Portuguese dozens of times between 1900 - 1936. The Bijago are known from early chroniclers accounts for their daring raids on ships along the African coast using huge canoes known as Bijago pirate canoes. They raided European ships and made way with their cargos and other items on board. Bijago have a mysterious and traditional community in Guinea Bissau, however their isolation allowed them to maintain cultural traditions strong and practically intact. Little is known about origins of Bijago, but the linguistic traits connect them clearly to present day inhabitants of then nearby continental coast. It is probable that they come from the region Buba on the continental part of the country. According to many inhabitants on the islands of Bubaque, nobody knows for sure when and from where all the Bijagós derive. It is a common belief among them, however, that it was Orebok, an intermediary between the Supreme Being, and the Bijagós, who began the world. The first human being was a woman, called Akapakama also known as Maria. This name originated from the first word her son told her, while lying hopeless and naked on the seashore, ‘come, take me’. Akapakama had four children, called Orákuma, Oraga, Onoca or Ogubane, and Ominka. They are the four mythological ancestors of the four matrilineal clans of the Bijagós. Most Bijagós can usually agree on these traditions. Each of the daughters had several children who, in turn, received a special duty of her grandfather: *Orakuma, got the land and made the first statue of Iran in the image of God. She was responsible for ceremonies held in the land. She also gave his sisters the right to do the ceremonies in balobas (shrines). *Ominka received the sea and their descendants have sought for fisheries. *Orage, given the nature with bolanhas and palm trees that made it rich. *Ogubane, received power from rain, wind and controlling the time of rain. Bijagos have a staunch belief in reincarnation. What we call death for a Bijago` nothing more than a short sleep. They also believe that if they die far away from their land they will return to it after death. But such returns depend on the degree of kinship with the family in which the return occurs, because the soul of the dead may rise again shortly or long after the death of a child by the same family, another tabanca (village) or a another island. How is the identification of a reincarnated child done in Bijago tradition? Here the fetish priests (orase-male/Okinka-female) consults the oracle/deity and the children themselves, before they can speak fluently, begins to narrate his origins, his mothers name, specifying among the women of the father, if he is a polygamist, and the name of the village to which he belongs. Source: diverseworld.eu/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=103%3Agwinea-etniczne-pl&catid=54%3Agwinea&Itemid=206&lang=en&limitstart=2 kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot/2012/12/bijago-people-guinea-bissau-african.html rebloggy/post/on-the-island-of-orango-grande-in-the-bijagos-archipelago-off-the-coast-of-gui/45620719433
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 01:38:57 +0000
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