Baga people

The Baga ( also: Baga ) are a West African ethnic group on the coast of Lower Guinea Guinea north of the capital Conakry. Main groups of Baga are the Koba, Fore and Sitemu. Theoretically, more than 100,000 in number, the Baga assimilate increasingly especially with the neighboring and more numerous Sousou.

Linguistically and culturally available to the related Kissi Baga, Nalu ( Nalou ) Landuma ( Landouman or Landoma ) Mmani ( Mani ), Temne, Limba and Bullom ( Boulam ) but closer. But only a part of the Baga speaks the common Mel, a West Atlantic, niger - Congo subgroup congo - kordofanischen language family.

It is believed that the Baga Fouta Djallon plateau from (Central Guinea) came where some settlements have received. In the 18th and 19th centuries they immigrated to the today on Sierra Leone belongs region Port Loko, where they were gradually pushed aside by Sousou to the north. In Lower Guinea, they formed a chain of more or less isolated from each other settlements along the coast.

Especially the Baga Fore have so far resisted the assimilation and not adopted the language of Sousou. The seclusion of some of their settlement regions has been preserved the traditional archaic culture and lifestyle of Baga. The dwellings of the Baga are rectangular, created with thatched roofs and on stilts. The Baga grow cassava, sweet potatoes, peanuts, taro and sorghum. Fruit trees are inherited to offspring. As trade goods used sea salt, which usually make the women by evaporation, and cola. Traditional foods are palm fat, dried onions and smoked fish.

The village communities are managed by a Board. Families form extended families, which are guided by the old men. Men and women are organized in secret societies (similar to the Temne ). Most Baga are indeed ( Sunni ) Muslims, but despite their Muslim upper class and Christian mission during the French colonial rule have numerous Baga firmly to traditional beliefs. They worship the forces of nature, for the fertility cult female figure Nimba plays a major role.

Source

• J. W. Bromlej: народы мира - историко - этнографический справочник ( peoples of the world - historical- ethnographic Wörter-/Handbuch ), page 80 Moscow 1988