Art of the Baga

by Frederick Lamp

Art of the Baga: A Drama of Cultural Reinvention traces the art and cultural history of these very special African people from their legendary flight from the mystical highlands of the interior of Guinea to the coast, in their attempt to conserve their own religious ritual, to the eventual destruction of their traditions at mid century with the conversion to Islam and, with independence from France, the establishment of the Republic of Guinea under an iconoclastic Marxist regime. In the book, the Baga voice is heard prominently in the direct testimony of three Baga writers and forty Baga consultants of all ages and background experience, from ten-year-old boys to elders and ritual leaders of over 100 years of age. Artistic creation and reinvention form the core of issues raised throughout the art historical drama.