Pair of Male and Female Lobi Bateba Statues, Burkina Faso - Early 20th Century
These paired statues, one male and one female, display a beautiful patina of use on the hard, dense wood. Made by the Lobi Birifor people of Burkina Faso, near the border with Ghana, they are a type of carved wooden figure known as ‘Bateba’. Specifically, with their neutral posture and expressions, straight legs, and arms, they are ‘Bateba Phuwe’, figures that serve multiple purposes, such as providing protection, wealth, and luck to the family that owns them.
Almost always made in pairs like this, and understood as living beings in the animist Lobi worldview, these two graceful statues remain uncommonly intact and together and would have been placed reverently on a shrine in the house of a Lobi family, where offerings would have ensured their protection.
Dimensions:
Height: 8.27 in (21 cm)
Width: 2.17 in (5.5 cm)
Depth: 2.76 in (7 cm)
These paired statues, one male and one female, display a beautiful patina of use on the hard, dense wood. Made by the Lobi Birifor people of Burkina Faso, near the border with Ghana, they are a type of carved wooden figure known as ‘Bateba’. Specifically, with their neutral posture and expressions, straight legs, and arms, they are ‘Bateba Phuwe’, figures that serve multiple purposes, such as providing protection, wealth, and luck to the family that owns them.
Almost always made in pairs like this, and understood as living beings in the animist Lobi worldview, these two graceful statues remain uncommonly intact and together and would have been placed reverently on a shrine in the house of a Lobi family, where offerings would have ensured their protection.
Dimensions:
Height: 8.27 in (21 cm)
Width: 2.17 in (5.5 cm)
Depth: 2.76 in (7 cm)
These paired statues, one male and one female, display a beautiful patina of use on the hard, dense wood. Made by the Lobi Birifor people of Burkina Faso, near the border with Ghana, they are a type of carved wooden figure known as ‘Bateba’. Specifically, with their neutral posture and expressions, straight legs, and arms, they are ‘Bateba Phuwe’, figures that serve multiple purposes, such as providing protection, wealth, and luck to the family that owns them.
Almost always made in pairs like this, and understood as living beings in the animist Lobi worldview, these two graceful statues remain uncommonly intact and together and would have been placed reverently on a shrine in the house of a Lobi family, where offerings would have ensured their protection.
Dimensions:
Height: 8.27 in (21 cm)
Width: 2.17 in (5.5 cm)
Depth: 2.76 in (7 cm)