Figure anthropomorphe "vosa gba" ·  Togo, Ewé · ID: 3042798

Description

unfired clay, greyish brown patina, figure with female and male sexual characteristics sitting in a pot, eyes with cowrie shell inlay, covered by thick encrusted sacrificial patina (kaolin), slightly dam.
One of the most important acts in Vodoo religion is outwitting the “vodun” - for example, with the aid of a figurine. The figurine acts as a substitute for a person in a difficult situation. The calamity the “vodun” wants to cause will then strike the figurine rather than the person. Figures representing human heads and made of fresh clay (“voku”) are placed on a bed of straw or on a calabash. The accentuated penis refers to the god “legba”, who is regarded as mediator between the world of the living and the world of the spirits and ancestors. He is the god of fertility at the same time.

Littérature comparée

Weinhold, Ulrike & Irene Hübner, Geest en Kracht, Vodun uit West-Afrika, Berg en Dal 1996, p. 141 f.