Coiffe en forme de serpent "bansonyi" ou "a-Mantsho-na-Tshol" · Guinée, Baga · ID: 3052253
North German Private Collection (1975)
Description
wood, colour pigments, base
The “Baga snake”, which is usually displayed as an upright static sculpture, was worn as a headdress. With the help of a light framework, the towering polychrome decorated serpent was held on the shoulders of a dancer who was concealed under tribal cloths and a lavish skirt of grass fibres. The dancer performed sharp, quick movements; he dipped and rotated the sculpture by bending at the knees and turning at the waist. The performance of the snake headdress required extraordinary strength and balance.
According to oral tradition, the ancestors of the Baga were once driven out from their homeland in the highlands of the mountainous Fouta Djallon region in the interior of Guinea and found a new home on the Atlantic coast. They brought their sacred masks with them to the coast, among them a headdress representing the divine being “a-Mantsho-na-Tshol” (Lamp 1996: 52) He is credited with leading the ancestors to new lands and protecting them by instilling fear in outsiders.
The serpent as imagery source for “a-Mantsho-na-Tshol” relates to an archetypal myth found along the Guinea coast at the center of which is the serpent spirit “ninkinanka”. Lamp (1996: 77) remarks: “ninkinanka” is widely honoured as the spirit who gives rain, bestows riches, and brings children to the infertile. “Ninkinanka” appears in the form of a serpent resembling the boa constrictor, which is found abundantly in the swamps of the Baga’s habitat.
In this context, the Baga Serpent figures can be interpreted as an incarnation of the spirit “a-Mantsho-na-Tshol” in the form of “ninkinanka”, an archetypal image which the Baga encountered upon their arrival at the coast.
The serpent headdresses are clan insignia, each representing one section of a village (Lamp: 1996: 80).
Littérature comparée
Lamp, Frederick John et al., Python Spirit on the Baga Coast, Milan 2023
Exposition
Washington D. C.: Museum of African Art: The de Havenon Collection, 1971