The Baga people live along the coast of Guinnea Bissau where they number about 45,000. They live in villages divided into two and four quartiers, which are inturn divided into five or six clans. Traditionally , each village was governed by the eldest member of each clan, who met in secret to discuss tribal matters. More recently, this sysem has been replaced, and each village is now headed by an elected 'mayor'.The Baga are a farming community, cultivating primarily rice in wet patties along the coast. Cotton, gourds, millet, oil palms, okra, sesame and sorgum are other locally grown commodities. The Baga also have the belief that abundance can be encouraged by placing benevolent spirits embodied in carved wooden figures in specially constructed huts between the village and the bush. Some coastal fihing is also undertaken and play san inportant role in the Baga economy.
Spiritually, the Baga believe in a single god, Kanu, who is assisted by Somtop, a male spirit and by A-Bol, a female spirit. Below them, the spirit, A-mantsho-nga-Tshol, who is often represented as a snake, serves as the patron of the two lowest grades of the To-lom societ which overseas the different initiation ceremonies.
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The Baga are famous for their Nimba headress, known to the Baga as d'emba. A shoulder mask, standing on four legs, it has a pair of large breats, enlarged head, u-shaped ears, and is work by dancers during festivals and ceremonies relating to births, marriages, harvest ceremonies and some other joyous celebrations. It is said to represent a woman who has born children, and to symbolize fertility.
The Baga snake headresses or Bansonyi, representing the spirit A-mantsho-nga-Tshol, (master of medicine)sometime measuring up to 10 feet high and typically display a rearing snake, polychrome decoration and eyes. Two or sometimes more dancers, clad in raffia costumes or textiles and palm frons, with the assistance of light framework decorated with feathers, ribbons and bells would support these headresses on their shoulders or heads. The masked figures representing the sections of the village would face one another, and, urged on by spectators, they open the ceremony with amock battle intended to inspire the village unity. Among most Baga subgroups, only adolescent males learn the secrets of the snake-spirit, during the Ka-Bere-Tshol initiation which marks the passage to adult status. The Bansonyi had a variety of functions. Beside appearing at funerals, they detact destructive forces, cure sterility, protect boys at circumcision and end droughts.
A-Tshol (meaning medicine) figures, or as sometimes called, elek figures were used principally as shrine figures, but sometime also as headresses. These figures took the form of a head with an exceptionally long beak and a long neck inserted into a base structure. The head also has anthropomorphic aspects such as a coiffure, ears, forhead and nose. A-Tshol figures were placed in the young man's sacred grove as a guardian during initiation, a time when they were considered to be suceptable to destructive forces as during these initiation ceremonies, a trance like state was often entered. A T-shol was under the control of the oldest member of the family as a symbolic incarnation of the lineage.
This Baga Bird Headdress, or a-Bamp headdress as the Baga call it, is very popular among the young initiates and boys. Typical form of these bird statues are a long nech and beak, body with chest protruding, broad wings, they often are sculpted with two birds on their backs, a house and sometimetimes a snake. It is intricately carved and colored with pigment in abstract lines and checkerboard. The a-Bemp dance performed by the masquerader is full of vigor, crouching and again leaping up, tilting the headdress from left to right, all done to the rythm of men beating on slit gongs and drums. It is generally a nocternal dance, and the masquerader is followed by an initiate hold a flame torch.
The Tonkongba mask of the Baga are usually kept in fornt of the clan's shrine. It is sometimes worn by masqueraders during ceremonies involving sacrifices, such as funerals. It is believed that Tonkongba has the power to know both good and bad news.
A-Tshol (meaning medicine) figures, or as sometimes called, elek figures were used principally as shrine figures, but sometime also as headresses. These figures took the form of a head with an exceptionally long beak and a long neck inserted into a base structure. The head also has anthropomorphic aspects such as a coiffure, ears, forhead and nose. A-Tshol figures were placed in the young man's sacred grove as a guardian during initiation, a time when they were considered to be suceptable to destructive forces as during these initiation ceremonies, a trance like state was often entered. A T-shol was under the control of the oldest member of the family as a symbolic incarnation of the lineage.
This Baga Bird Headdress, or a-Bamp headdress as the Baga call it, is very popular among the young initiates and boys. Typical form of these bird statues are a long nech and beak, body with chest protruding, broad wings, they often are sculpted with two birds on their backs, a house and sometimetimes a snake. It is intricately carved and colored with pigment in abstract lines and checkerboard. The a-Bemp dance performed by the masquerader is full of vigor, crouching and again leaping up, tilting the headdress from left to right, all done to the rythm of men beating on slit gongs and drums. It is generally a nocternal dance, and the masquerader is followed by an initiate hold a flame torch.
The Tonkongba mask of the Baga are usually kept in fornt of the clan's shrine. It is sometimes worn by masqueraders during ceremonies involving sacrifices, such as funerals. It is believed that Tonkongba has the power to know both good and bad news.
