The earliest know inhabitants of Grand Bassa were the ancestors of the Bassa. Some migrated from Musadu in the present-day Guinea, a trading town, down along the St. John.
Others had previously lived on Mount Gedeh. They cite Mount Niété in Grand Gedeh as their ancestral home, the summit of which is said to be the site of a village of the dead. Oral traditions suggest the ancestors of the Bassa engaged in metal smelting in Grand Gedeh, probably to make iron tools.
Footnote: Béavogui, 2001, p. 26; Fairhead, 2008; Person, 1968, p. 242; Person, 1987, p. 249; Geysbeek, 2002; Geysbeek, 1995, p. 3; Korvah, 1960, p. 7; Korvah, 1995; Jones, 1987; Massing, 1985, p. 36; Fairhead, Geysbeek, Holsoe and Leach, 2003, p. 136; Højbjerg, 2007, p. 80, n. 19; Martin, 1968, p. 48; “Tour two hundred miles interior,” African Repository, Vol. 45, Vol. 5 (May 1869), pp. 153-154; “Missionary exploration by a native, African Repository, Vol. 45, Vol. 10 (October 1869), pp. 308-313; Siegmann, 1969, p. 8.
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