A Mystery of Baga Culture: The Tshol Initiation Language

In late December of 2007, a team of art-history researchers under Frederick Lamp arrived in the Baga village of Katako. The goal of the interdisciplinary team of seven researchers was to expand on Lamp's previously acquired knowledge of the huge mask called D'mba, a conspicuous, widely recognized icon of Baga culture also known by its Susu name, "Nimba." Several years earlier Lamp opened several avenues toward investigating historical relations between coastal peoples and those of the hinterland, including possible inter-ethnic transfer of styles in masking traditions. This accounts for the presence of a Mande specialist on the 2007-2008 research project discussed here by Conrad. Having focused on history and culture of the Manding peoples, mainly in Southern Mali and Northern Guinea, since the early 1970s, this would the writer's first experience among the fishing and rice-growing Baga villages of Guinea's Atlantic coast.