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The Ana people, also known as the Ife, Atakpame or Baate people, are an ethnic group of Benin and Togo. In Togo, the Ife are indigenously concentrated around Atakpame, primarily in the Gnagna (Ñaña) and Djama (Jama) quarters, and on the vertical land strip between the towns of Glei and Sokode on the west and the Togo-Benin international border in the east. In Benin, they are found domiciled in the area between the aforementioned border and the town of Savalou.
Ethnologists identify the Ana as the most western of the Yoruba subgroups. In fact, the Ana trace their origins to Ife, and their language is also called Ife, which has more than 400,000 speakers.[4][5][6][7][8]
Geography
In Togo
In Togo, the Ana or ife people can be found domiciled in the eastern half of the Plateaux Region mostly east of the N1 National highway that runs vertically through the spine of the country, specifically in the prefectures of;
- Est-Mono: Gbadjahe, Elavagnon, Nyamassila, Kamina, Kpessi, Badin-kope, Moretan-Igberioko.
- Anie: Adogbenou (Okeloukoutou), Pallakoko, Anié, Kolo-kope, Glitto, Atchinedji.
- Ogou: Atakpamé, Woudou, Djama, Gnagna, Datcha, Akpare, Ountivou, Glei, Katore.
There is also a smaller Ana-Ife community in the immediate environment of Esse-Ana community in the Yoto Prefecture. The biggest settlements of the Ife people are; Atakpame, Elavagnon, Kamina, Datcha (Dadja), Adogbenou, and Moretan (Morita).[9]
The Yoruboid dialect spoken in the Cantons of Goubi and Kaboli in the Tchamba Prefecture of the Central Region, although sometimes erroneously considered to be one and same with Ife, is simply another Yoruba linguistic community of the Manigri-Kambole variety located to the north of the Ifes with which it shares 87-91% lexical similarity.[10]
In Benin
In Benin, the Ife (Ana) communities can be found domiciled mostly in the commune of Savalou in the west of the Collines Department. They inhabit the Arrondissements of; Doumè, Tchetti, Ottola, Lema, Djaloukou and partially within Savalou township itself.
It is also spoken in some villages in the communes of Bante and Djidja (in the Agouna arrondissement). These towns and villages are bordered by the Isha-Yoruba communities of the Bantè commune to the north and the Mahi ethnic community to the east.
These are all within the Collines Department of south-central Benin.
Language
The Ana people speak the Ife language or Ede Ife. In Togo, there are three major varieties based on the towns of Atakpame (Djama variant), the Dassa variant is spoken in Dadja town, and a third one is based in Kamina. In Benin, the language is based on the dialect of Tchetti.[11] Like all the other dialects of Yoruba, Ife has three tones; (High, Mid and Low). Many speakers of Ife are bilingual in Ewe in the south of Togo and Standardized Yoruba (SY) in the North.[12]
On the converse, Ede Ife is in turn used as a second language (L2) by speakers of; Bago-Kusuntu and Kpessi in Togo, those of Anii in Benin, as well as the Northern Nago and Aguna speakers in both countries.
Media
The Ife language enjoys vigorous use as first language among all members of its ethnic community and geographic region.[13] It is used on the local radio based in Tchetti, [Radio FM Ore Ọ̀fẹ́] 102.1 Mhz, disseminating news to the surrounding region.[14]
References
- ^ "PeopleGroups.org - Ife of Benin". peoplegroups.org. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
- ^ "Languages of Benin: Interactive (EN)". Translators without Borders. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
- ^ "Togo". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. 12 February 2025. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
- ^ James Stuart Olson (1996). The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary (ABC-Clio ebook). Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313279188.
- ^ Appiah, Kwame Anthony; Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (1999). Africana, (1st ed.). New York: Basic Civitas Books. ISBN 0-465-00071-1.
- ^ Toyin Falola; Matt D. Childs (2005). The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World (Blacks in the Diaspora). Indiana University Press. p. 133. ISBN 9780253003010.
- ^ William Russell Bascom (1975). African Dilemma Tales (bascom) World anthropology. Walter de Gruyter. p. 13. ISBN 9789027975096. ISSN 1572-6339.
- ^ "In Togo, Atakpame keeps Yoruba language alive". The Punch. December 30, 2015. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
- ^ Gblem-Poidi, Honorine Massanvi (15 February 2018). J'apprends l'ife: Langue Benue-Congo du Togo (in French). Editions L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-14-007070-9. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
- ^ "Ifè". Ethnologue. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ "Glottolog 5.1 - Ifè". glottolog.org. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ Frawley, William (May 2003). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics: 4-Volume Set. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 422. ISBN 978-0-19-513977-8. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
- ^ "Ifè | Ethnologue Free". Ethnologue (Free All). Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ "Radio Ore Ofe". FeRCAB (in French). Fédération des Radios Communautaires et Assimilées du Bénin. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
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