Baka
The masters of the emerald labyrinth, maintaining a prehistoric harmony with the rainforest that has outlasted empires.
Named after the Baka people who inhabit the southeastern rainforests of Cameroon, this limited annual release is RoMa Craft's first Cameroon-wrapped line. The filler includes Jamastran ligero from Honduras, with the balance undisclosed. An annual limited release with approximately 1,000 boxes per vitola per year. Cameroon tobacco is among the most expensive wrappers to procure, and the Baka delivers its sweet spiciness in a bold, full-bodied format.
| Vitola | Description |
|---|---|
| Pygmy Petite Corona, 4 x 46 | The general category Europeans imposed on the Baka and other Central African forest peoples. The category is theirs in name only. |
| Bantu Petite Robusto, 4 x 52 | The expansion-era language family that displaced and surrounded the Baka. The Baka kept their own language and their own forest. |
| Ota Benga Petite Gordo, 4½ x 60 | The Mbuti man purchased for a pound of salt and a bolt of cloth and displayed in a cage at the Bronx Zoo in 1906. His name on this band is an unflinching record of what categorization by others can cost. |
| Poki Short Perfecto, 5 x 50 | A traditional Baka social institution and song form. The internal life the categorizers never bothered to record. |
| Acephalous Robusto Extra, 5 x 56 | "Without a head." The anthropological term for societies organized without centralized leadership, which is how the Baka have organized themselves through every empire that surrounded them. |
| Jengi Gran Corona, 5¾ x 46 | The Baka forest spirit. The being to whom the molimo ceremony is sung. |
| Hunter Gatherer Gran Toro, 6 x 54 | The mode of subsistence the Baka have practiced continuously for thousands of years. The category that, for a long time, the academic literature treated as backwardness. |
Limited Editions
| Vitola | Description |
|---|---|
| Pygmy Bambuti Petite Corona Prensado, 4 x 46P | The Mbuti, one of the Pygmy peoples of the Ituri Forest in the Congo Basin. |
| Ota Benga Bronx Zoo Petite Gordo Prensado, 4½ x 60P | The full record. The brand does not soften the reference. |
| Gran Perfecto Gran Perfecto, 5 5/8 x 60 | The figurado tapered at both ends, the most demanding shape in any roller's repertoire. The portfolio's recurring LE expression of each blend's outer limits. |
| Yelli Gran Toro Prensado, 6 x 54P | The polyphonic vocal music of the Baka. Sung continuously, without stopping, through nights of ceremony. |