Gurma people

Gurma (also called Gourma or Gourmantché) is an ethnic group living mainly in Burkina Faso, around Fada N'Gourma, and also in northern areas of Togo and Benin, as well as southwestern Niger. They number approximately 1,750,000.

They might include the Bassaries who live in northern Togo and the Northern Volta of Kingdom of Dagbon, Ghana.

Gurma is also the name of a language spoken by the Gurma (or bigourmantcheba - as they call themselves) people, which is part of the Gur language family. See Gurmanchema language and Oti-Volta languages for related languages spoken by the Gurma.

Overview

In 1985, Dr. Richard Alan Swanson wrote a book about these people, Gourmantché Ethnoanthropology: A Theory of Human Being. The book presents Gourmantché perception of 'human being' from the perspective of the people themselves, using their own language texts to illustrate concepts. Concepts of God (Otienu), destiny (licabili), the body (gbannandi), life (limiali), death (mikuuma), and all known terms for human body parts are also discussed.