Equestrian figure "syonfolo" ·  Côte d'Ivoire, Senufo · ID: 3036068

Description

wood, slightly encrusted blackish brown patina, old label at the bottom, min. dam., small missing parts (hooves), slight traces of abrasion;
“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

Chemeche, George, The Horse Rider in African Art, Suffolk 2011, p. 92