Female protective figure "bateba phuwe" · Burkina Faso, Lobi · ID: 3046731
German Private Collection (1997)
Description
wood, sacrificial traces, base
The Lobi believe that the universe was created by the god “tangba”, under which sit a number of deities and spirits called “thila”.
Villagers pray to “thila” to gain wealth, cure illnesses but more importantly, to protect themselves from witchcraft and harm.
For this, people need wooden carved figures “bateba”, which act as intermediaries between the human world and the spirit world of the “thila”. Once placed on an altar (be it a village altar or an individual household altar), the “bateba” figure becomes inhabited by the appropriate “thil” spirit.
The object Female protective figure “bateba phuwe” with the object ID 3046731 was part of the auction 95th Tribal Art Auction on October 24, 2020. The object with the lot number 139 achieved a sales price of EUR 3,500 with an asking price of EUR 2,500.
You can find more Figures and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on African art.