Ancient Bateba - Lobi People, Burkina Faso M34
Ancient Bateba - Lobi People, Burkina Faso M34
Ancient Bateba - Lobi People, Burkina Faso M34 1
Ancient Bateba - Lobi People, Burkina Faso M34 2
Ancient Bateba - Lobi People, Burkina Faso M34 3
Ancient Bateba - Lobi People, Burkina Faso M34 4
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Ancient Bateba - Lobi People, Burkina Faso M34

$3,500.00
The 250,000 Lobi are divided among Ghana, Ivory Coast & Burkina Faso. Each household leader is subordinate to a thila, an invisible protective spirit who communicates through the intermediary of diviners. It is the thila who dictates taboos and who requires the creation of a new wooden figure for the village or house- hold shrine. Lobi sculpture was only discovered in the 1950's.The Lobi do not use masks but create figures called bateba & heads sculpted on top of a post planted in the ground. These figures, are beings that are somewhere between spirits & people & may represent the dead or bush spirits. The bateba belongs to the thila & carries out their orders to defend the territory against evil & to protect their owners from harm.

Ex. Leonard Kahan Gallery, New York 1992 and Ex. Christopher and Genevieve McConnell collection.
Very eroded, and missing feet front left and back right.

Height: 14 ½" x Width: 4 ½" x Depth: 3" - Height on the 4 11/16" x 4" base is 14 ¾".

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