Figural carved staff "tefalapica"

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Description

wood, brown patina, remains of black paint, round staff, carved with a sitting female figure, carrying a bulbous vessel on her head, min. dam., fine cracks, slight traces of abrasion;
“tefalapica” means “the girl of the man working with the hoe” and presents the trophy money in a kind of hoeing competition. In September and October the young men of the Senufo have to cultivate the new yams fields, an exhausting field work, organized as a kind of competition.

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Comparing literature

Förster, Till, Die Kunst der Senufo aus Schweizer Sammlungen, Zürich 1988, p. 22, ill. 5

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