Large bird sculpture, “porpianong" ·  Côte d'Ivoire, Senufo · ID: 3052825

Description

wood, patina, old repair with metal clamps (left wing), minor surface losses in places, base

According to Timothy Garrard, these large-scale bird sculptures were owned by secret Poro male societies. They were kept in the Poro sacred grove and used in initiation rites, particularly for admission into the final stage of training.

Known as “poropia nong” (“mother of the Poro child”), the figure is regarded as a central emblem of Poro leadership: it signals the authority of the elders while also serving a protective role for the young initiates (“children of the Poro”). Elder Senufo generally refer to the bird form simply as “sejen” or “fijen” (“bird”), without necessarily implying a specific species; the prominently carved beak, however, evokes a hornbill, a bird of particular significance among the Senufo, associated with intellectual power and the transmission of knowledge to the initiates.

The bird is sometimes also called “kasingele” (“the first ancestor”), a term that may refer either to the Senufo mythic progenitor or to the founder of the sacred grove.

Comparing literature

Phillips, Tom (Hg.), Afrika, Die Kunst eines Kontinents, Berlin 1996, p. 457 Gagliardi, Susan, Senufo unbound, New York 2015, p. 80, ill. 43

Publications

Ausstellungskatalog: Kunst der Neger. Werke aus St. Galler Museums- und Privatbesitz. 02.10 - 14.11.1971. Waaghaus St. Gallen, p. 17, Abb.14

Exhibition

Waaghaus St. Gallen: Kunst der Neger. Werke aus St. Galler Museums- und Privatbesitz. 02.10 - 14.11.1971