Bassa people (Liberia)
The Bassa people are a West African ethnic group primarily native to Liberia. The Bassa people are a subgroup of the larger Kru people of Liberia and Ivory Coast. They form a majority or a significant minority in Liberia's Grand Bassa, Rivercess, Margibi and Montserrado counties. In Liberia's capital of Monrovia, they are the largest ethnic group. With an overall population of about 1.05 million, they are the second largest ethnic group in Liberia (18%), after the Kpelle people (26%). Small Bassa communities are also found in Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.
Bassa women in 1922 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 1,005,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Liberia | 900,000 |
| Ivory Coast | 65,000 |
| Sierra Leone | 40,000 |
| Languages | |
| Bassa, Kru Pidgin English | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Krahn, Kru, Grebo, Jabo | |
The Bassa speak the Bassa language, a Kru language that belongs to the Niger-Congo family of languages. They had their own pictographic writing system but it went out of use in the 19th century, was rediscovered among the slaves of Brazil and the West Indies in 1890s, and reconstructed in early 1900 by Thomas Flo Darvin Lewis. The revived signs-based script is called Ehni Ka Se Fa.
In local languages, the Bassa people are also known as Gboboh, Adbassa or Bambog-Mbog people.