The Lobi are divided among Ghana, Ivory Coast & Burkina Faso. Each household leader or Cuor is subordinate to a thila, an invisible protective spirit who communicates through the intermediary of diviners. It is the thila who dictates taboos & who requires the creation of a new wooden figure for the village or household shrine. Lobi sculpture was only discovered in the 1950's. The Lobi do not use masks but create figures called bateba. 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.
Height: 26" x Width: 7" x Depth: 6".
It stands on an 8" square metal base.
