Bozo people

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A Bozo fisherman on the Niger River, near Gao

The Bozo are a West African ethnic group located predominantly along the Niger River in Mali. The name Bozo is thought to derive from Bambara bo-so, 'Bamboo house'; the people accept it as referring to the whole of the ethnic group but use more specific clan names such as Sorogoye, Hain, and Tieye themselves. They are famous for their fishing and are occasionally referred to as the "masters of the river." Their languages, belonging to the Soninke-Bozo subgroup of Northwestern Mande languages, have traditionally been considered dialects of one language, though in reality there are at least four distinct varieties.

Rock drawings linked to the Bozo date back as far as 6,000 years, but many aspects of their current culture took shape under the 10th century Ghana Empire, when the Bozo took possession of the banks of the Niger. The Bozo were the founders of the Malian cities of Djenné and Mopti.

Though the Bozo are overwhelmingly Muslim, they preserve a number of animist traditions as well. Their animal totem is the bull, whose body represents the Niger and whose horns represent the Bozo fishing pirogues.

One of these animist traditions, one may say pre-islamic or pre-patriarchal traditions is a young men's home where the young people have experiences in love and sex.

Such a home has also been described at the Muria in India, or by Bronislaw Malinowski and Wilhelm Reich about the inhabitants of the Trobriand Islands.

A 2000 census counted the Bozo population of Mali to be 132,100.