The Baga are a people from the Guinea coast of West Africa. Most of the artifacts of their cultural heritage were spirited away to Europe in the late 19th century. Their distinctive headdresses had a profound influence on early modernist art. The culture is still alive today, though in the throes of a generational conflict as it emerges from decades of colonial domination followed (until 1984) by Marxist rule.

(Baga village mask. Corel photo.)