Male figure

Ancestor figures are never carved among the Baule; the ancestors, who are a powerful force, instead receive sacrifices on special stools and chairs. Figures (waka sorta, wooden persons) like this one are the locus for spirit spouses. The Baule believe that everyone had a spouse in the other world before they were born into this one (see Vogel, 1981: 73). Men would have a blolo bla, a ‘spirit wife’, while women have a blolo bian, a ‘spirit husband’. The diviner may advise anyone who has difficulties with marriage, fertility etc., to commission a figure of a spirit spouse and set up a shrine for it, as such problems are attributed to a restive spirit spouse who must be appeased. The spirit itself may indicate to the diviner, the client and the carver the details of posture, scarification and coiffure, and even which tree should be used in making its figure.

This statuette, with cupped hands held loosely in front, is unusual in posture and proportions. Most Baule figures have the arms carved along the sides of the body, whether attached or free. The head is rather smaller than the Baule standard, and the body is considerably shorter than the legs. The slender build and exquisite finish give an impression of other-worldly beauty which is heightened by the naturalistic, yet serenely idealised head with its minimal tribal scarification. The coiffure is marvellously detailed; the long legs with muscular calves and astonishingly long feet may embody a canon of male beauty. The ears are shown as larger than the norm — perhaps it is not too fanciful to suggest that this spirit husband’s pose was intended to convey an aura of receptive, even sympathetic attention.

A male figure, illustrated by Meauzé (1968: 68-9), may be by the same carver, since it too is unorthodox in attitude and proportions; if so, we have here one of only two known works by the hand of a Baule master.

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