Revue d'ethnoécologie (Jun 2022)
Migration humaine et diffusion de variétés de riz
Abstract
In a 1955 article, Roland Portères proposed a hypothesis about the origin of the Baga people, a society living on the coastline of Guinea. The Baga people, who were famous rice growers, used a variety of African floating rice, which the author identified simultaneously in the region of Mopti (Mali). He then established a historical migration relationship: the Baga people would have come from Mopti. Although the author's hypothesis proved interesting when little was known about the history of the Baga people in his time, it appears to be audacious today, supported by arguments that are disputed or even rejected in the light of the research published after his article. While Portères' ethnobotanical work was not mobilized in later studies, we wish to prove the pertinence of rehabilitating it in order to question the history of the Baga people, as it is currently understood by social scientists. The Baga ethnic group seems to have emerged from a double process, both from an ancient settlement whose modalities are opposed to the Portères hypothesis, and from a complex process of accretion of migrants seeking refuge, the result of the centuries of violence that characterize the sub-region, sometimes with marronage. This process took place over several centuries and accompanied the emergence of the word “Baga” in historical sources, and probably of the ethnic group itself. The ethnobotanical work of Portères can be associated with the research on the composite identity of the Baga people, and in particular the origin of the migrants who have swelled the Baga ranks over the centuries. Research on the relationship between the Mande area and the Baga people remains to be done, especially since Portères' botanical connection is supported by the ethnology of the Baga: rice is not the only element of Baga society that can historically link them to the larger Mande group.
