Tribal Art

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

Polychrome, matte, abraded patina.
Two types of statues are produced by the Baule in the ritual context: The Waka-Sona statues, "being of wood" in Baule, evoke an assié oussou, being of the earth. They are part of a type of statues intended to be used as a medium tool by the diviners komien, the latter being selected by the spirits asye usu in order to communicate revelations from the beyond. The second type of statues, made according to the indications of the diviner, are the spouses of the afterlife, male, the Blolo bian or female, le blolo bia . About sixty ethnic groups populate Côte d'Ivoire, including the Baule, in the center, Akans from Ghana, people of the savannah, practicing hunting and agriculture just like the Gouro whose cults and masks they have borrowed. The basic unit is the lineage, under the responsibility of an elder, whose functions are political and religious. Ref : "Baule" Susan M. Vogel