BAMBARA

Bambara dance headdress of wood in the form of an antelope, representing the spirit Tyiwara, who ethnolinguistic group of the upper Niger region of Mali whose language, Bambara (Bamana), belongs to the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Bambara are to a great extent intermingled with other tribes, and there is no centralized organization. Each small district, made up of a number of villages, is under a dominant family that provides a chief, or fama. The fama has considerable powers but must defer to a council of elders. The Bambara, like other West African peoples, use the distinctive N'ko alphabet, which reads from right to left. They have a remarkable system of metaphysics and cosmology, encompassing associated animistic cults, prayers, and myths. Their religious sculptures in wood and metal are renowned. Economic changes in the mid-20th century included the introduction of such cash crops as peanuts (groundnuts), rice, and cotton into the pattern of subsistence agriculture. Many people migrated to the region's towns.