Senufo people

The Senufo (the francophone spelling Senoufo is commonly used) are an ethnolinguistic group composed of diverse subgroups of Gur-speaking people living in an area spanning from southern Mali and the extreme western corner of Burkina Faso to Katiola in Ivory Coast. One group, the Nafana, is found in north-western Ghana. The Senufo number somewhere between 1.5 and 2.7 million and speak the various Senufo languages. Korhogo, an ancient town in northern Ivory Coast dating from the 13th century, is the capital of the Senufo people. The Senufo are predominantly an agricultural people cultivating millet, yams, peanut, and rice.

Daily life for the Senufo people revolves around the religious rituals that enable them to placate the deities they respect and fear through means of divination practices and the wearing of specially crafted brass jewelry. The Senufo to employ the Fo bracelet, which contains one of the culture’s most prominent designs, a python, in a variety of purposes to suit the spiritual and aesthetic needs of the society. The Sandogo is an authoritative women’s social order responsible for sustaining positive relationships with the spiritual world through divination and for protecting the purity of each kinship group. The Sandobele are diviners within the Sandogo society who diagnose and resolve issues within the community.