The language of the Bassa belongs to a family that includes Kuwaa, Dei, Kru, Grebo, Sapo and Krahn. Unlike most of their linguistic cousins, they and the Dei share membership in the Poro power association diverse ethnic groups living in Northeastern Liberia.
The ancestors of the Bassa probably adopted the Poro while living in Guinea. There, they were a link in a pan-ethnic Poro chain that ran from the Gola, Dei and Vai through the Kissi, Bandi, Kuwaa, Loma, Bassa, Kpelle and some Dan in the middle, to the Lobi, Birifo, Dya and Senofu.
Footnote: M. Izard, “The people and kingdoms of the Niger Bend and the Volta basin from the twelfth to the sixteenth century,” General History of Africa: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century, Vol. IV. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), pp. 94-96. at the northern-most tip.
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