A small Baga village may have five hundred residents and a large village may have as many as several thousand people.

The Baga people are divided up into five dialect groups because of the slight differences in their languages. Each dialect group covers a certain amount of territory, and that territory contains many villages.

Each village is divided up into neighborhoods called quarters. The quarters all have their own leaders and special sacred spots where their spirit masks are made. The quarters also have their own masks and costumes, their own songs, and even their own distinctive drumming style.

The quarters are made up of several different clans. A clan is a group of families that share a common origin. Each clan has its own leader.

Baga Spirit Masks

The Baga have many spirit masks and ritual objects that seem unfamiliar to people who are not from that part of Africa. But the Baga use those masks and objects for things that we can understand: celebrating a wedding, marking the passage from childhood to adulthood, teaching and passing on important traditions, insuring a good harvest, and many more.