Tribal Art

This African statuette generally called "colon" , forms, for the Baoulé, an idealized, individual image of the celestial spouse. Its features were carved on the indications of the diviner for his client in an attempt to remedy various problems.

Abraded polychrome patina. Desication crack.
Two types of statues are produced by the baoulé in the ritual context: TheWaka-Sona statues, "being of wood" in Baoulé, evoke a assié oussou, being of the earth. They are one of a type of statues intended to be used as medium tools by Komien soothsayers, the latter being selected by the asye usu spirits in order to communicate revelations from beyond. The second type of statues, made according to the indications of the diviner, are the spouses of the beyond, masculine, the Blolo bian or feminine, the blolo bia .