Bijagos Archipelago: An African Society Strictly Run By Women

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The story of Bijagos Archipelago, a community in Guinea Bissau, is a counter-narrative to popular societies where most things are controlled by the men. The Bijagos are a people who dwell in small villages, or tabancas, formed by houses of mud and straw.

The Bissagos or Bijagos archipelago consists of twenty main islands and dozens of smaller ones. It forms part of Guinea-Bissau and is located in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast. Only twenty of the islands are inhabited all year round.

In this society, the women choose their husbands as well as control the law, economy, welfare, and spirituality. They have the final say in divorces; they are the owners of the homes they live in and which they themselves construct; they run the family and organise labour; they are also in charge of relations with the spirit world.

Bijagos is even guided by female priests as against male spiritual leaders as is obtainable in most traditional African worlds.

The people of the society are most known for hunting and their peculiar canoes that could carry 70 people each at a go. The Bijagos have also had their fair share of colonialism as reports said that they were under forced labor by both the Portuguese and British in the first half of the 20th century.

The Bijago people celebrate the birth of a female as especially momentous. Every woman, for her ability to become a mother, is afforded the highest respect and prestige.

They are also the intermediaries between the living and the spirits. At ceremonies, they are in charge of running everything: they cook using large pots, play music, dance and serve wine to the men, who merely stand witness to the events that transpire.

The girls choose their husbands by placing a large plate of food at the house of their choice. If the young man is willing to accept her proposal, he eats the food.

After doing so, the future husband goes to live with the girl in the hut which she will raise, and the couple is then married… until she drags her husband’s belongings out the front door, thus indicating she does not wish to live with him any longer.

Rites Governing Everyday Life

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The simplicity of Bijago material living conditions is in sharp contrast to the complexity of their beliefs. They move in a heavily sacralised uni-verse, wrapped in mysterious and secret knowledge that surrounds their understanding of the world.

There are numerous rituals and ceremonies that govern the day-to-day lives of the Bijagos, including one linked to the onset of the growing season and another of calling to the spirits for permission to build a house. These ceremonies are different from island to island.

The two sources from which power derives among the Bijagos are, firstly, clans, whose lines of succession occur from the maternal side; and secondly, the system of stages of spiritual development. From these maternal clans derives the choice of oroñô or chief of the tabanca, and the okinka (the priestess) of great power and prestige, in charge of worshiping the deities and elders. Both are regulated, controlled and advised by a council of elders.

As to the system of stages of spiritual development, there exist eight levels for men and six for women. Young people transition into adult social life by means of an initiation ceremony of great importance, called fa-nado or manrase, performed separately for men and women; these rites require extensive preparation and on some islands male circumcision is an associated aspect. In the ritual of fanado, the initiate must spend as long as six months alone in the sacred forest.