Bassa

Where and by whom it is spoken

Bassa, or Basaá, is the Bantu language of the Bassa people. According to the Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon (2012), it is spoken in Nyong-et-Kéllé (Centre region), Sanaga-Maritime and Nkam (Littoral), in Wouri, a traditional Bassa area being transformed by the growth of Douala, and in Océan (South). It is a tonal language with an implosive b, and its Mbene variety serves as the standard.

History and writing

During the German period, German Protestant and American Presbyterian missionaries chose Bassa, alongside a few other local languages, for teaching and evangelisation. In 1973 Pierre Lemb and François de Gastines published a Basaá–French dictionary of more than 500 pages at the Collège Libermann in Douala. Today the language is written in the General Alphabet of Cameroonian Languages, with tones marked by accents.

Where to hear it today

• A school language: Bassa was among the first languages in the PROPELCA programme for teaching in Cameroonian languages, and is now part of ELAN-Afrique.
• A language of wider communication beyond its home area: Breton and Fohtung (1991) count it among Cameroon's nine main lingua francas.
• The language of assiko, the music and dance of the Bassa, and of mbongo tchobi, now a national dish, two words that have passed into Cameroonian French.

A few words

malép

water

mùdàa

woman

ndi laa

how?

mbongo tchobi

the traditional black sauce of the Bassa, served with meat or fish

assiko

the music and dance of the Bassa

What sources disagree on

Figures vary: about 300,000 speakers according to Ethnologue (2005), 230,000 according to another estimate cited by Wikipedia, while the Bassa people are said to number about 800,000. Edéa is often described as the heart of Bassa country, but the Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon gives the majority there to Bakoko, a related variety (A.43b).