African Arts Gallery

Statuette Baoule Waka Sona (N° 17730)

Inverted doubles in the African art sculptures of the Baule.Wearing a spectacular hairstyle composed of braids gathered in shells, this female figure, seated, is depicted sitting on the right back, hands resting on the knees. A triple row of beads highlights a long neck, while bracelets are sculpted in relief, evoking a high social status. Statue of a spouse, or embodiment of a spirit, this baule sculpture enhances feminine beauty. Beautiful grainy black patina, satin, residual particles of ochre and kaolin.
A sixty ethnic groups populate Côte d'Ivoire, including the Baoulé, in the centre, Akans from Ghana, the savannah people, hunting and farming, as well as the Gouro, whose ritual cults and sculpted masks they borrowed. Two types of statues are produced by the Baoulé , Baulé , in the ritual setting: The statues Waka-Sona , being of wood in baoulé, evoke a assed or , being from the earth. They are part of a type of statues intended to be used as a medium tool by the soothsayers komian, the latter being selected by the spirits asye usu in order to communicate the revelations of the afterlife. The second type of statues are the 'spouses of the afterlife, male, Blolo bian or feminine, the blolo bia , which are akin to a quest for fullness by seeking homage to his idealized sexual opposite.