A H S E C A |
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IN THE WORLD |
IN AFRICA |
IN GUINEA |
IN GUINEA |
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Map General Information History Geography and Population |
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General Information
| The village of Barenfory is located in “Basse Guinée”, South-West of Guinea. It is part of the
Administrative Authority (Préfecture) of Kindia which is the area Headquarter. Population in Kindia as well as in Barenfory is
in majority from the “Soussous” ethnic group. The ethnic groups “Peuls” and “Malinkés” are also well
represented. In the past, Barenfory was a village of banana plantations. Life was easy and peaceful, under the protection of the “Fossikha” river and the shadow of the majestic waterfall called “Voile de la Mariée” (literally "Bridal Veil”) because of the image observed from far away. |
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Barenfory history is more or less in line with the story of a family: SOUMAH. Indeed, in the middle of the last
century, Mister Fodé SOUMAH was a banana planter and he was exporting his bananas to Europe. In this regard, he
was trying to compete with a must larger French entrepreneur named Mister AUBRY. At the headquarter Kindia was located a Catholic Church and missionary managed with authority by a priest named Father LACAN. Father LACAN has spent most of his life at Kindia and he was so fluent in the language Soussou that he wrote a dictionary translating French into Soussou and vice-versa. In his duty to converting people, he was using the possibility to attend the French school for free which would offer the opportunity to the black people to work for and with white people. The problem lied in the fact that the area was fairly under the influence of Islam and it was not easy to find for example young boys to maintain the church and the presbytery. In which extend is Mister Fodé SOUMAH concerned by this subject? He is because, against the position of his brotherhood, Fodé SOUMAH had been the only Muslim in the area to respond favourably to the request of Father LACAN. He did it in agreement with his wife, M’Balia SYLLA (also called SIMBINI for the reason that she was providing traditional medicine to people) who belonged to the regnant family of Kindia. In summary, Fodé SOUMAH and his wife M’Balia received Christian first names of respectively Jacques and Angeline! As a direct consequence of this decision, the Church took immediately care of the education of their children. Thus, the ten “angels” were baptized and educated according to the Apostolic and Roman Church Prescriptions! Another consequence was that the so called from now on Fodé-Jacques and M’Balia-Angeline were isolated in the small village of Barenfory. But the decision to allow their children to attend “white man school” allowed them to be well educated and for some of them to have brilliant professional careers. As we are now familiar with the familial Sagas, the first names of MR and MRS SOUMAH's children are: Marie, Michel, François, Thomas, André, Philippe, Jean, Gabriel, Prosper and Josephine! BARENFORY at a glance:
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