Upper part of a staff "tefalapica" · Côte d'Ivoire, Senufo · ID: 3034761
Description
wood, black, slightly shiny patina, in shape of a sitting female figure, a small animal horn around the hips, min. dam., small missing parts, 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.
The object Upper part of a staff “tefalapica” with the object ID 3034761 was last part of the auction 73rd tribal art auction at May 25, 2013 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 199 achieved a sales price of EUR 2,000.
Here you will find more objects and interesting facts about African art.
Comparing literature
Förster, Till, Die Kunst der Senufo aus Schweizer Sammlungen, Zürich 1988, p. 22, ill. 5