Kumpo

The Kumpo is one of three traditional figures (along with Samay, and the Niasse) in the mythology of the Diola people in the Casamance (Senegal) and in Gambia.

Multiple times in the course of the year, i.e. during the Journées culturelles, a folk festival in the village is organized. The Samay invites the people of the village to participate with the festivity.

The Kumpo is dressed with palm leaves and wears a stick on his head. At the start of the dance, a young lady binds a colored flag on the stick. She dances for hours with the stick and the flag on the head. He speaks a private, secret language and communicates through an interpreter with the spectators.^[1]