The Baga and their art - art of a people living in part of Guinea, Museum of African Art, New York, NY; adapted from 'Art of the Baga: A Drama of Cultural Reinvention' - Under the Hammer - Cover Story

American Visions, April-May, 1997 by Frederick Lamp

the public and burned, all of this reinforcing the power

and the reputation of the marabouts (Adolphe Camara).

I began my initiation, but I did not

complete it--all that came to an end in

favor of the Muslim religion. It was on

the 10th of October, 1956, that Tambui

and Boglansh [the two versions of the

highest male spirit] came to an end in

our district (Pukur at Era).

Despite the negative effects of the Islamic revolution, including the forced conversion of the traditionalists and the abuse of the elderly, quite an interesting set of traditions has grown under its shade that testifies to the ability of the Baga to manipulate the vagaries of their lot. The "invention" of a new, colorful headdress, the revision of an earlier one, and a whole new complex of dance, music and patronage are the result of innovation on the part of the Baga youth and some especially perceptive artistic leaders. Two headdresses have helped the Baga bridge the dreadful gap between a magnificently rich past and the options of the present. They form a story of the negotiation of a very treacherous political passage.

In the mid-1950s, with Islam already entrenched in the northern Baga area and a jihad on the horizon led by Malinke and Susu Muslim missionaries, a variation on an earlier headdress was invented by the Sitemu carver Salo Baki Bangoura. Around 1954, Salo Baki hit upon an idea, after seeing an image in a newspaper of al-B'rak. Significantly, al-B'rak's role in the seventh century was to deliver the Prophet from the climate of persecution that he found in his hometown of Mecca. The Baga, too, were under severe duress in the mid-1950s.

Salo Baki's horse's head was transformed into the head of a Baga man, as is evident from the two small Baga scarification marks on the cheeks. The addition of a Muslim cap common to the Malinke appealed to a self-image that modern young Baga men found palatable. Other figures found on or within the box frame on various examples of the headdress include small birds and male and female figures.

Al B'rak was modeled after the Sibondel, a headdress created around 1930 representing a hare (a wily creature that easily escaped from harm). On the top of the hare's body (which was shaped as a box) small figures were placed. The form of Sibondel was so close to the form of the Malinke puppet stage that it is hard to believe that there is not some connection. Indeed the similarities to Malinke form only begin here. Characters appearing in these Malinke puppet performances include various animals, as well as human stereotypes, such as the man, the big mother, the colonial officer, and others. All of the examples of the Baga Sibondel extant today (see cover) were almost certainly carved after the rise to national power of the Parti Democratique de Guinee (PDG), the Malinke-dominated political party of Sekou Toure. The characters on these headdresses today include Muslim teachers, military men with rifles, white-robed government ministers, women carrying suitcases on their heads, birds, miniature hares, and the elephant, the symbol of the PDG.