Title: Mother with Child Figure
Material: Wood
People: Lobi
Country: Burkina Faso
Description: The 250,000 Lobi are divided among Ghana,
Ivory Coast & Burkina Faso. Each household leader or Cuor
is subordinate to a thila, an invisible protective spirit who
communicates through the intermediary of diviners. It is
the thila who dictates taboos & who requires the creation
of a new wooden figure for the village or household shrine.
Lobi sculpture was only discovered in the 1950's. The Lobi
do not use masks but create figures called bateba & heads
sculpted on top of a post planted in the ground. These
figures, are beings that are somewhere between spirits &
people & may represent the dead or bush spirits. Heads
surround the shrines of sacred huts & the bateba belongs to
the thila & carries out their orders to defend the territory
against evil & to protect their owners from harm.
Included is a custom-built metal stand.
Figure dimensions: 43" height x 15" width x 6" depth
Stand dimensions: 10" length x 10" width
Figure on stand dimensions: 44" height x 15" width x 6" depth
