Non daté
Southern Mauritania, Diafunu, and areas near Ghana and Tādmekka
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Barbara, also called Barbar or Barābir, were a black population associated with the Sudanese land of Zāfunu, identified in the extract with present-day Diafunu. Arabic accounts place them in parts of southern Mauritania, near Ghana and Tādmekka, and describe kings, pastoral and agricultural communities, and a claim of descent for Ghana’s rulers. The extract tentatively relates them to Soninke populations and to the Barbaros of later Portuguese accounts.
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Le récit
Arabic sources of the twelfth century describe the Barbara, or Barbar and Barābir, as a black population living in the Sudanese land of Zāfunu, identified here with present-day Diafunu. Other references place them in the central desert and in areas near Ghana and Tādmekka. Their distribution suggests communities positioned between settled agricultural zones, desert margins, and the wider networks of the western Sudan.
The Barbara had kings and included people who lived partly as nomads. They wore animal skins, and neighbouring populations from Ghana and Tādmekka are said to have invaded their lands to capture slaves. The Barbara considered themselves the noblest of the Sudanese peoples and claimed that the rulers of Ghana originated from their group.
The extract proposes, with caution, that the Barbara may have been a Soninke group. It also compares them with a black population remembered in local traditions as having occupied Tichitt and with the Barbaros mentioned in Portuguese chronicles of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These identifications remain conjectural and connect medieval Arabic ethnonyms with later traditions rather than establishing a certain continuity.
Non daté
Southern Mauritania, Diafunu, and areas near Ghana and Tādmekka
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Barbara, also called Barbar or Barābir, were a black population associated with the Sudanese land of Zāfunu, identified in the extract with present-day Diafunu. Arabic accounts place them in parts of southern Mauritania, near Ghana and Tādmekka, and describe kings, pastoral and agricultural communities, and a claim of descent for Ghana’s rulers. The extract tentatively relates them to Soninke populations and to the Barbaros of later Portuguese accounts.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
Arabic sources of the twelfth century describe the Barbara, or Barbar and Barābir, as a black population living in the Sudanese land of Zāfunu, identified here with present-day Diafunu. Other references place them in the central desert and in areas near Ghana and Tādmekka. Their distribution suggests communities positioned between settled agricultural zones, desert margins, and the wider networks of the western Sudan.
The Barbara had kings and included people who lived partly as nomads. They wore animal skins, and neighbouring populations from Ghana and Tādmekka are said to have invaded their lands to capture slaves. The Barbara considered themselves the noblest of the Sudanese peoples and claimed that the rulers of Ghana originated from their group.
The extract proposes, with caution, that the Barbara may have been a Soninke group. It also compares them with a black population remembered in local traditions as having occupied Tichitt and with the Barbaros mentioned in Portuguese chronicles of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These identifications remain conjectural and connect medieval Arabic ethnonyms with later traditions rather than establishing a certain continuity.
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