Bandial (Banjaal), or Eegima (Eegimaa), is a Jola language of the Casamance region of Senegal.
Bandial has the highest percentage of similarity with Fulup at 87% and is classified as one of the Jóola dialects in Sapir's[2] West Atlantic inventory.
[4] Oral tradition says that the ancestors of the Mof-Ávvi migrated from Guinea-Bissau in search for arable land.
Jóola people and languages are distributed over three West-African countries: Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and The Gambia.
[4] Many Bandial speakers live in a former small Kingdom of ten villages known as Mof-Ávvi ‘the king's land’, located eighteen kilometers southwest of the city of Ziguinchor.
Mof-Ávvi is a peninsula composed of the following ten villages: Bajjat, Essil, Bátiŋer-yal-Essil, Gáabal, Enappor, Sállagi, Bátiŋer-Bulan, Elubalir, Ettama and Banjal.
These villages are usually divided by the inhabitants of Mof-Ávvi between Fásuga which includes villages located in the mainland (Bajjat, Essil, Gáabal, Enappor) and Gállux ‘mud’ which comprises islands (Bátiŋer-yal-Essil, Sállagi, Bátiŋer-Bulan, Elubalir, Ettama, Banjal.)
The language is referred to by the Jóola from the northern bank of the Casamance River as Bandial.
Bandial, one of the villages of Mof-Ávvi, is an island that is located halfway between the Búluf and the Kaasa areas.
[8] Common romanizations of Bandial are based on French orthography since it is a major language of Senegal.
Often prefixes are attached to root morphemes in Bandial to indicate the lexical and semantic classification of the word.
The following are excerpts from an interview by Sagna[4] and Abass Sory Bassène about the traditional religion of the Gújjolaay Eegimaa people: terwhethera-vvasen-a,NC1-libation-AGTterwhetheraw2SGn-ú-ttubi-ttubi,LOC-2SG-convert to Islam-DUPterwhetheraw2SGa-jangaraNC1-Christian.ter a-vvasen-a, ter aw n-ú-ttubi-ttubi, ter aw a-jangarawhether NC1-libation-AGT whether 2SG {LOC-2SG-convert to Islam-DUP} whether 2SG NC1-Christian.
'panFUTa-ag-iCD1.3SG-say-2SG.DOñersoaw2SGbu-lago-iNC5A-pathway-2SG.POSSb-ayCD5-INTn-i-roren-eLOC-1SG-ask-PFVmaa.like thispan a-ag-i ñer aw bu-lago-i b-ay n-i-roren-e maa.FUT CD1.3SG-say-2SG.DO so 2SG NC5A-pathway-2SG.POSS CD5-INT LOC-1SG-ask-PFV {like this}'He will say to you, so what I am asking now is what your religion is'w-oCD6-PROmatiNEG.FUTú-ju2SG-canu-jux.2SG-seebarebutwafNC6.thingw-a-bab-baj.CD6-REL-have-DUPw-o mati ú-ju u-jux.