Bassar
is a town situated in east-central Togo. It
is located on the western periphery of the
Atokara Mountains, just north of the equator.
Bassar has a tropical climate, with six months
of rain and six months without. The rain reaches
up to 1400 mm per year. During the dry season,
the area is subjected to Harmattan winds from
the north. The name Bassar is derived from
that of a deity, which in turn was named for
the Mountain Bassar (de Barros 2001). The
mountain rises up to 460 meters and acted
as a defended of Bassar from the invasion
of the other powers of West Africa before
the 1800s.
The Bassar people called themselves the Bi-Thambe,
which means metalworker, and makes the Bassar
people unique from the other societies of
sub-Saharan Africa. Since, Bassar was the
site of massive iron production since AD500,
it has drawn other African groups who migrated
to Bassar for work and trade. This leads to
the present Bassar, which is an amalgamated
society. However, the original inhabitants
of Bassar are from the Kibre sacred forest,
located northwest of the current town of Bassar
(de Barros 2001)
Archeological
data indicated that the earliest habitation
was small. According to de Barros, the late
Stone Age inhabitants may have practiced a
combination of hunting and gathering and rudimentary
horticulture or vegeculture (Barros 2001).
He also noticed later settlements were as
large as one hectare in size, which he inferred
as the period of farming leading to a specialization
of Bassar life, setting the stage for the
industrial production of iron (de Barros 63).According
to de Barros (2001), archeological studies
conclude that iron production began in Bassar
around AD 500. In fact, these studies indicated
that Bassar was the largest industrial iron
producer in West Africa between AD500 and
1800. When Germans first came into contact
with the Bassar people in the 1890s, they
documented that there were more than 500 furnaces
still operating. The Bassar then had the industrial
capacity of producing 10 to 20 metric tones
of iron per year. This amount far exceeded
local consumption, which implied that Bassar
traded with other societies in Western Africa
(de Barros 2001). In fact, in the 15th and
16th centuries, the Mamprusi and Gonja (Ghana)
emerged as political states, which lead to
increased demand for iron to use as military
weaponry and protection, including spears,
swords, and horse equipment (de Barros 2001).
The iron production had a major impact on
the economy of the area. The iron technology
increased food production through the use
of more efficient bush clearing tools, which
permitted the clearing of forest and increased
productivity. In turn, increased food production
allowed population density to grow, which
allowed specialization and social differentiation,
especially the formation of iron working castes
or classes. Larger and more stable communities
were the result of both increased specialization
and food surpluses. Specialization also led
to increased trade due and the "embryonic
rise" of modern politics (de Barros 2001:467).
In turn, the increased agricultural productivity
and food supply allowed the Bassar iron production
to increase between 400 and 600 percent between
AD500 and 1750. It also dramatically increased
the standard of living, making it attractive
to neighboring migration. As a result, the
population increased 100 to 200 percent (de
Barros 2001).
The
iron industry also impacted the political,
economic, and sociocultural structures of
Bassar. Bassar's iron industrial power made
it a stable chiefdom. The Bassar communities
were either "made up of a single localized
exogamous kin group or class or, more frequently,
an amalgam of several residence of lineages
belonging to one or more clans" (de Barros
2001: 60). The majority of these clans were
split up according to their specific geographic
location within Bassar. Also, each clan specialized
in a particular aspect of the iron making
process. For example, the Bissibe were primarily
smelters, while the Koli were mainly smiths.
This implied that there were of political
and social interdependencies among the clans.
As
documented by the first Europeans to reach
Bassar in 1890, there were two political organizations,
consisting of chiefdoms (Bassar and Kabu)
and the "relatively autonomous western region
running from Bandjeli to Bitchabe to Dimuri."
Elders and the headman, known also as the
earth priest, governed the western region
(de Barros 63). The earth priest was not necessarily
the one that gave orders; instead the priest
was a descendant of the first settler, who
was elected according to his or her knowledge
of the history of the town and its boundaries.
The earth priest was also responsible for
solving internal land conflicts and acted
as an ambassador to the neighboring town in
case of intergroup land disputes. The elders
worked with the earth priest to make sure
that everybody got a fair share of land when
needed. This system promoted fairness and
stability of Bassar internal social institutions.
The oldest member of the extended family solved
problems within the family institution. However,
when the problem involved other families,
the headman was brought into finding the solution.
Furthermore,
Bassar's economy was not only limited to smelting,
smithing and charcoal production; it also
consisted of potting, cattle raising and farming.
Even today, Bassar is known to be one of the
largest yam producing regions of Togo (Decalo
1996 63). It is also one of the major shea
nut producing areas in central Togo, which
contributes to the economy of the region.
Back
to Tour
of Togo
Sources
De
Barros, Philip Lynton. 2001. The effect of
the slave trade on the Bassar ironworking
society, Togo. In Christopher R. DeCorse (editor)
West Africa during the Atlantic Slave trade:
Archaeological Perspectives. New York:
Leicester University Press.
Decalo, S. 1996. Historical Dictionary
of Togo, 6th ed. (African Historical Dictionaries,
No. 9). Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press,
Inc.
