Toponymes et anthroponymes chez les bassa’a : étude anthropologique

Abstract

Our effort of reflection relates to the subject of: "toponyms and anthroponyms among the bassa'a: anthropological study" African cultures in general; Negro-culture in particular have been violently influenced by imperialist movements in this instance colonialism. This has resulted in the disaggregation of ways of doing things in almost all African peoples. Despite this influence, it is clear that the names of human persons and those of places bear a connotation and consonance with the endogenous Bassa'a culture. This problem prompts a central question that what is the cultural significance of names among the Bassa'a? From this question get two secondary questions namely: What is the expression of toponyms?; What is the expression of anthroponyms? The hypotheses addressed to these questions are that: Basa’a onomastic means the discourse of the Bassa’a people about their universe. Thus, toponyms and anthroponyms generate the physical and social environment bassa’a. Therefore, we have set ourselves the following objectives: first to show the cultural significance of onomastic bassa’a, then to show the expression of toponyms and finally to show the expression of anthroponyms. The verification of these hypotheses imposed on us a two-step methodology which is: documentary research and field research. This methodology has allowed us to arrive at the results that onomastic Bassa'a culturally means zoonyms, bravery of people, space and phytonyms, hydronyms, ethnonyms, events for remembering facts, objects and the instruments encountered in the Basa'a community, weather and atmospheric phenomena, diseases etc. From the gold, Bassa'a onomastics is the expression that the Basa'a people are anchored in their culture and consequently, toponyms and anthroponyms exercise a multitude of functions, in particular the functions of knowledge, of justification which explains why the Bassa'a people are attached to their physical and social environment because it is the crucible of their culture. Therefore, we keep in perspective that despite the logic of globalization, “local knowledge” must be valued and preserved.