The Yarse, also spelt Yarsé, Yarsin or Yarcin, are a people of
Burkina Faso, living among the
Mossi. The population in the mid-1990s was estimated at 190,000, of whom 90% were Muslims.
They are the descendants of
Mandinka Mandinka, Mandika, Mandinkha, Mandinko, or Mandingo may refer to:
Media
* ''Mandingo'' (novel), a bestselling novel published in 1957
* ''Mandingo'' (film), a 1975 film based on the eponymous 1957 novel
* ''Mandingo (play)'', a play by Jack Kir ...
traders who arrived in the area in the late 1600s, bringing
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
. In 1780, they were granted permission by the Mossi king to settle throughout his kingdom; over the years, they adopted the language and customs of the Mossi and intermarried with them, but they did not convert either to Christianity or the indigenous Mossi religion, remaining faithful to Islam. Settlements in which the Yarse stayed included
Kaya
Kaya may refer to:
People
*Kaya (given name)
*Kaya (surname)
Places
*Kaya, Burkina Faso, a town in Burkina Faso, capital of the department
*Kaya Airport, serving the town
* Kaya Department, a department or commune of Sanmatenga Province in centr ...
,
Rakaye, Patenga and, later in the 18th century,
Ouagadougou, where they had their own quarter. They continue to be merchants, although many have settled down to become subsistence
millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...
farmers.
[Olson, ''The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary'', p. 603.]
References
Bibliography
*Duperray, Anne-Marie. "Les Yarsé du royaume de Ouagadougou: L’écrit et l’oral," ''Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines'' 25 (1985): 179–212.
*Izard, Michel. "Les Yarsé et le commerce dans le Yatênga pré-colonial," in ''The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa: Studies Presented and Discussed at the Tenth International African Seminar at Fourah Bay College, Freetown, December 1969'', ed. Claude Meillassoux, pp. 214–227. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1971, .
*Kouanda, Assimi. "Le religion musulmane: Facteur d’intégration ou d’identification ethnique: Le cas des Yarse du Burkina Faso," in ''Les ethnies ont une histoire'', ed. Jean-Pierre Chrétien and Gérard Prunier, pp. 125–134. Paris: Karthala and ACCT, 1989,
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Ethnic groups in Burkina Faso
French West Africa