Sitting "bateba" figure ·  Burkina Faso, Lobi · ID: 3035799

Description

wood, greyish brown patina, dam., cracks (head and shoulder right hand side), small missing part (left arm), the back hollowed by insects, base;
a work of the “master of the gems”.
figures depicted in sitting posture were called “paralyzed bateba” - “bateba bambar”. As they cannot move because of paralysis, they guard the house.

Littérature comparée

Meyer, Piet, Kunst und Religion der Lobi, Zürich 1981, p. 86 ff.