Statua di antenato (1) - Legno - Waka sona - Baoulé - Costa d'Avorio

The soothsayer Komienfoué sometimes intervenes in the divinatory practices of the Mbra, this feminine effigy evokes an Asie Usu, “spirit of nature”, she is depicted here sitting on a stoll of the Akan type, and presents an attitude attesting of her assurance. A hairdo arranged into multiple backcombed lobes, checkerboard scarifications all over the body, vigorous calves fit for field labour, are among the features of the Baule statuary. Residual incrustations attest of oil anointing, applied during ritual uses. Dark satin patina. Two kinds of figurines were created by the Baule within a ritual framework: The Waka Sona figurines, “wooden beings” in Baule, evoking the Assié Oussou, a being of the earth. These are part of a type of figurines destined to be used as a medium tool, by Komian soothsayers who were selected by the Asye Usu spirits, in order to communicate the revelations from the hereafter. The second type of figurines are the “spouses” from the hereafter; either masculine, the Blolo Bian, or feminine, the Blolo Bla. Some 60 ethnic groups populate Ivory Coast, including the Baule in the centre, Akans who came from Ghana, a people from the savannah who practised hunting and agriculture, like the Guro from whom they have borrowed the ritual cults and carved masks.  

I have inherited of this figurine from my father, one of the greatest antiquarians of Ivory Coast, this statuette comes from the centre of Ivory Coast (Yamoussoukro), and it is ancient.