Silmi-mossi

Silmi-mossi

Regions with significant populations
Yatenga (northern Burkina Faso)
Languages
Moore, French
Religion
Sunni Islam, minority Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Mossi peoples

The Silmi-mossi or Silmimoosé, Silmi-moosé, are a people of Burkina Faso resulting from the mixture between Mossi and fulani. They are historically based in the Yatenga in the north and speak in Moore language. They are attached to the Mossi with whom they share the same culture and constitute a Mossi sub group.

The northern area of the province is characterized by an ancient fulbe settlement (18th century): fulbe chiefdom of Banh. In this region, many villages under Mossi command have a fulbe, silmimoose (mix fulbe-mossi) or sometimes rimaïbe district (former Fulbe captives)^[1]

The Sankaras come from a fulani-Mossis lineage also called the Silmimoose. Fulanis and Mossis today represent the most important cultural groups in Burkina Faso, respectively 10% and 52%, and the most mobile. The fulanis being breeders and the Mossis farmers, their meeting was natural. "The Silmiisi met the Moose on the Moogo territory in the 15th century. The routes of their fortune have sometimes crossed on the same territory as inhabitants, through battlefields as campaign allies of a time, or as enemies in other circumstances. In any case, the needs of men through the imperatives of politics, the economy and nature have cut the spaces for farmers and the paths for breeders. On this soil plowed by peasant tools and dug by the hooves of horses and oxen, the Moose and the Silmiisi forged relationships, tied alliances, poured and shared their blood. The Silmimoose were born then, sons of history, from the need to exchange between lineages and societies. The meeting between farmers and breeders gave birth to farmers-breeders^[2].