Equestrian figure "syonfolo" · Côte d'Ivoire, Senufo · ID: 3035313
Gisela & Hartwig Dehmel, Lüchow, Germany
Description
wood, blotched greyish brown patina, encrusted in some areas, kaolin, horseman with extremely elongated trunk and overlong arms, tribal marks on face and arms, cracks, traces of insect caused damage (head crest), paint rubbed off, rep. (chip left hand, horse tail);
“syonfolo” roughly means “master of the horse”. Equestrian figures were part of the soothsayers objects and were made in reminiscence of the equestrian hordes of Samori Touré once depredating and destructing the Senufos land and villages. Nowadays hardly anyone remembers this painful time, but the Senufo combined horse and rider with power, violence and with a claim to leadership for quite a long time.
Comparing literature
Burkhard, Gottschalk, Senufo - Unbekannte Schätze aus privaten Sammlungen, Düsseldorf 2009, p. 64 f.