Rice farmers, salt makers and fishers of the mangrove coast from the Rio Nunez to the Konkoure and the Kaloum peninsula, living in autonomous villages without a head over them all.
Their own tradition remembers an earlier home in the highlands inland; when they came down is not dated, and the Susu who later shared their coast came long after 1200. The coast is drawn as theirs by back-projection.
Who holds it
- Title
- Elders of autonomous villages; the first-comers' landlord right
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
The Baga were an acephalous society of autonomous communities holding the landlord's rights of first-comers (Wikipedia: Baga people). Their tradition says they came down from the interior highlands, driven west by neighbours; the Portuguese record them on the coast from the sixteenth century. Nothing is recorded for 1200.
How things stand that morning
Not known; presumably self-governing, perhaps not yet on all of this coast.
Customs
Village autonomy; the landlord right of first-comers over later settlers; initiation societies; mangrove rice and salt (later evidence).
Assemblies
Village councils (later evidence).
Where the sources disagree
- The date of the Baga's descent to the coast is not known; some accounts tie it to the Fulbe of the Futa Jallon, which would be centuries after 1200.
Evidence: Tradition and sixteenth-century Portuguese evidence.
On the map: Back-projected from the sixteenth century.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.