o - Aceh Books website

712 soso
in the outskirts of villages, with the women taking part in the cortege but
remaining conspicuously absent during prayers.
Alfred G. Gerteiny
Population figures updated by Richard V. Weekes
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Curran, Brian Dean, and Schrock, Joann. Area Handbook for Mauritania. The American
University FAS, DA Pam 550-161. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing
Office, 1972.
Gerteiny, Alfred G. Mauritania. New York: Praeger, 1967.
Levtzion, Nehemia. "The Differential Impact of Islam Among Soninke and the Manding."
In Papers from the International Conference on Manding Studies. London:
University of London School of Oriental and African Studies, 1972.
Meillassoux, Claude. Urbanization of an African Community: Voluntary Associations in
Bamako. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1968.
Murdock, George P. Africa: Its People and Their Culture History. New York: McGraw-
Hill, 1959.
Trimingham, J. Spencer. The Influence of Islam Upon Africa. New York: Praeger, 1968.
. Islam in West Africa. London: Oxford University Press, 1959.
SOSO The Soso of West Africa are often referred to as Susu, a word derived
from written documents by Europeans who first came to the coast and met the
Soso about the middle of the fifteenth century. The Soso people themselves,
when speaking in the local language, or in French, the official language, refer
to themselves as Soso.
The Soso live mainly in coastal areas of the Republic of Guinea and in the
bordering northwestern part of Sierra Leone. There is much ease of movement
of the Soso across the border, defying state legislation in both countries. In the
Republic of Guinea, one could speak more properly of Soso-speaking peoples
as a collectivity, for the Soso dominate this littoral, which is occupied by the
original Landuman, Baga, Mikhifore, Mandenyi, Nalou and other peoples. These
latter have been at least linguistically absorbed by the Soso and are in many
respects regarded as Soso-speaking peoples.
The Soso language, a northern subgroup of Manding, is also mutually intelligible
with Yalunka. In the Republic of Guinea, Soso and Yalunka are sometimes
regarded as the same people, the latter being called Yalun Soso (see Mandingspeaking
Peoples; Yalunka).
Though accurate figures are hard to obtain, the Soso in Guinea number about
1 million. The Soso people of Sierra Leone, about 110,000, are peripheral to
those of Guinea, from where they originally expanded southwards to northwestern
Sierra Leone. Being contiguous to the Temne of Sierra Leone, pockets