Python spirit on the Baga coast

Python Spirit on the Baga Coast is a multi-vocal, inter-disciplinary examination of Baga culture and specifically the performance of the Serpent masquerade within that culture. It is also the most extensive research on the relationship between ethno-zoology and art and ritual in Africa.

This study of the wooden Serpent figures/headdresses of the Baga people of Guinea is a collaboration by the author, as an art historian, with many contributions from diverse perspectives, including scientists preeminent in their fields : Robert J. Koestler, Roy Sieber, Dennis William Stevenson, Mark T. Wypyski, and Peter J. Zanzucchi.

The book is a thorough exploration of the ethnological and art historical evidence for the Serpent masquerade among the Baga of Guinea, bearing an immense wooden serpent figure on top of the head representing a python. Never witnessed or photographed by outsiders, it disappeared in the 1950s along with most ritual performance after an Islamic jihad instated strict prohibitions against indigenous religions. The ritual context is followed by an in-depth analysis of the Serpent masquerade figures now in collections, while the final sections present scientific examinations concerning one particular Serpent figure.