Baga (people)
The Baga (also: the Bagas ) are a West African ethnic group on the coast of Lower Guinea north of Guinea's capital Conakry . The main groups of the Baga are the Koba , Fore and Sitemu . Theoretically over 100,000 in number, the Baga are increasingly assimilating with the neighboring and more numerous Susu .
Linguistically and culturally, the related Kissi , Nalu (Nalou), Landuma (Landouman or Landoma), Mmani (Mani), Temne , Limba and Bullom (Boulam) are closer to the Baga. But only a part of the Baga still speaks the common Mel , a West Atlantic, Niger-Congolese subgroup of the Congo-Kordofan language family .
It is believed that the Baga came from the Fouta Djallon plateau (Central Guinea), where some settlements have been preserved. In the 18th and 19th centuries they immigrated to the Port Loko region, which is now part of Sierra Leone , from where they were gradually pushed north by the Sousou. In Lower Guinea they formed a chain of more or less isolated settlements along the coast.
The Baga-Fore in particular have so far resisted assimilation and have not adopted the Sousou language . The isolation of some of their settlement regions has so far preserved the traditional archaic culture and way of life of the Baga. The dwellings of the Baga are rectangular, with thatched roofs and laid out on stakes. The Baga grow cassava, sweet potatoes, peanuts, taro and sorghum . Fruit trees are passed on to the offspring. Sea salt, which women mostly produce by vaporizing, and kola nuts serve as barter goods . Traditional foods are palm fat, dried onions, and smoked fish.
The village communities are led by a council. Families form large families that are led by the old men. Men and women are organized in secret societies (similar to the Temne). Most of the Baga are (Sunni) Muslims, but despite their Muslim upper class and Christian proselytizing during French colonial rule, numerous Baga cling to traditional beliefs. They worship the forces of nature; the female Nimba figure plays a major role in the fertility cult.
source
- JW Bromlej: народы мира - историко-этнографический справочник (Peoples of the World - Historical-Ethnographic Words / Handbook), page 80. Moscow 1988
